Learning about Percy
by paradiseisland101
Summary: Everyone at Camp Half Blood is missing Percy badly. The Gods notice this.They sent a book that has Percy's best moments written down. What do they do? They read the stories of course. Rated T. ON HOLD until further notice.
1. Chapter 1

**I thought I would start this story**

**review and tell me what you think and if I should continue**

* * *

Annabeth sat in her cabin hugging her really missed Percy. He's been missing for a long time and the Argo II was long from being finished. Leo and the Hephaestus cabin were working hard to finish before the summer solstice but for Annabeth it was going to slow.

She missed his troublemaker smile and his sarcasm. Who wouldn't? Everyone missed Percy. He was a boyfriend, brother, a rule model.

Just then Piper walked in," Annabeth?" Then she saw Annabeth sitting in the same position as she had hours ago when she checked on her last.

"Annabeth Percy wouldn't want you to worry. I haven't met him but I think he wouldn't want you to feel this way." Piper tried to get Annabeth out of her funk for a mouth.

It wasn't working.

"You don't get it Piper. What if he has another girlfriend and doesn't remember me? I couldn't take that." Annabeth said not moving from her position.

Piper was about to open her mouth when Leo came in yelling," Annabeth!"

He looked like he ran all the way there. He was panting, trying to catch his breath. There was sweat prickling his forehead.

"What Leo?" Annabeth asked calmily.

"It's about Percy."

Annabeth sprang up from the floor and asked," Percy?"

"I was working on my baby -"

"Baby?" Piper asked smiling.

" - and all of a sudden there was this flash of bright light and when we went to check it out we found a book but it was blank. We also found a note that had Percy's name on it." Leo said rapidly.

"Call a meeting. Now."

XXXXX

Twenty minutes later the cabin leaders were sitting around the rec room ping-pong was trying to get order so they could start the meeting.

"Travis give back Leo's wallet."

"Butch stop shoving pencils up Clovis's nose."

"Lou Ellen stop taking of your nose."

"Okay now that I have everyone's attention Leo wants up to know something."

Everyone turned toward Leo who was tapping his long figures against the told everyone the story of the mysterious light and the objects he found.

"What does the note say?" Connor asked.

"It says:

_Dear campers,_

_We understand that you all miss Perseus Jackson and some of you need to know what Perseus has done. So we the Gods have made a collection of Perseus' most important moments. your will find a book that's blank It will show the first story when all the camper's are together at the campfire. After you finish that story another will appear._

_Happy reading,_

_Apollo ;)_

"Perseus? "Jason asked.

He was sitting next to piper.

"That's Percy's full name." Will solace informed him

Jason nodded.

"Well let's wait for the campfire. Then we'll read these moments." Chiron said.

Everyone nodded.

Annabeth wanted to hear about her missing boyfriend.

XXXXX

Chiron stamped his hoof on the ground three time sto get everyone's attention.

Everyone sat around the campfire. They didn't get to the sing along yet.

Everyone turned their attention to their teacher.

"We, the cabin leaders have found something astordnary." He then preceded in telling the story of the note and the empty book.

Everyone had different emotions at the were excited. Some had smiles on hearing about their leader and old friend.

"So who wants to read the first story?" Chiron asked the crowd.

"I will Chiron." Annabeth said standing up. Everyone stared at her. She hasn't been this moveable since they found out were Percy was.

Chiron handed her the book.

She looked at it," It's still blank."

Everyone looked confused before they heard," Because were not there."

Everyone turned to see Thalia and Nico di'angelo standing there.

"Thalia!" Annabeth yelled and engulfed her in a hug.

"Thalia." Jason said walking up to her.

Thalia ruffled his hair," Hey little brother."

"Hey what about me?" Nico asked.

"Your too creepy." Thalia said.

"Hey!"

Thalia laughed.

"How did you know to come?" Annabeth asked.

"Well Artemis told me to go to camp. Said I had to be here for something." Thalia said.

"Same happened to me but it was Hades instead of Artemis." Nico said," and why are we here?"

"Your here to read Percy's best moments." Annabeth said.

Thalia's and Nico's eyes widened.

Annabeth looked at the book, "It has words now."

"WEll lets read!" Travis and Connor yelled,

"Wow. The Stolls want to read." Katie said.

"Shut up, Katie kat."

"Don't call me that."

The Aphrodite cabin giggled.

"Okay I'll start." Annabeth waited for everyone to get comfortable then she started reading.

* * *

**So tell me if I should continue**

**also give me suggestions**

**see you**


	2. What Ho!

**Here's the next chapter**

**I hope it's okay**

**I decided to continue this story**

**Also I'll probably go in order...maybe...review and tell me what you think**

**Another thing is that I'm working on two stories at the same time so I'll update one then the other**

**the other story might take longer to update so It might be a while**

**check out my other story if you like ( I'm working on the next chapter If your following that story)**

**enjoy**

* * *

"Okay there's a note at the top. It's says:

_Your first Monster is the start of you demigod life. Let's see Percy's_

_Hermes_

Everyone looked excited.

**What Ho!**

"What kind of title is that?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth shrugged and read on.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich **

Nico laughed," Nice way to start a story."

Everyone else laughed along with him.

**when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-**

Everyone turned to the Hermes campers.

"Not my sister!" They all yelled.

**and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Annabeth and Thalia growled.

The people sitting next to them inched away.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Ew!" The Aphrodite cabin yelled," She needs a make over!"

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."**

"Never works." Will Solace said shaking his head.

Everyone agreed.

** But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

The demigods smiled.

Jason,Leo and Piper looked confused.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Cool!" Leo yelled.

Jason nodded.

He thought it was pretty cool too.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

Everyone smiled.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"Your always in trouble Seaweed brain." Annabeth said smiling fondly.

Annabeth looked so... not depressed that nobody bother telling her that she was talking to a book.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. ****"Now, honey-"**

"Ugh. I hate when teachers say homey." Travis said.

Nico was thinking _Honey? Why does that remind me of someone?_

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"No!" Travis and Connor yelled," That's rule number six!"

"Rule number six? You have rules?" Annabeth asked.

The Hermes cabin nodded.

"Wow." Was all Annabeth said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"Well duh." Connor said.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Yes she did." A voice said.

Everyone turned to the voice to see Grover standing there.

"Grover!" Thalia and Annabeth yelled throwing themself at him.

"Baaa aaa a" Grover bleated," Nice to see you to. What are you doing?"

"Were reading stories about Percy." Piper said.

Grover's eyes widened and he sat down to listen.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

Everyone growled.

"Can I smack her now?" Thalia asked.

"I'll join you." Annabeth said.

Travis and Connor looked at each other and smirked.

Watch out Nancy.

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

Everyone shivered.

"It can't be that bad." Jason said.

"You haven't seen it." Nico said wincing.

"You saw it?" Katie asked.

Nico nodded," Let's just say my dad saw it too."

Everyone looked confused at that.

** Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Monster." Everyone said at the same time.

They started to look nervous.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Not this time punk." Clarisse said.

**I wasn't so sure. **

Everyone looked released...

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

...then worried again.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Chiron!" Annabeth yelled.

"Sorry." Chiron said sheepishly," It was a really good book."

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

The demigods nodded hopeing it was true.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

_Too good to be true_ most thought.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

Everyone groaned.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Nico's eyes widened.

He knew who Mrs. Dodds was and he didn't like it.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"probably did." Nico said to himself.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"The honey things getting annoying." Leo said.

"You have no idea." Nico said before he could stop himself.

Everyone looked at him.

He just gestured for them to continue reading.

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

Thalia gasped," He did the safe thing?"

"I know I can't beleave t either." Annabeth said.

Jason looked at them in confusion.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what? "Someone asked from the back.

Everyone shrugged.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Yeah right. "Connor said.

"And the do hurt you with homework." Travis said.

Katie rolled her eyes and smacked them over the head.

"Ow!"

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"Dad." Thalia said.

Thunder boomed.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Neither do we." Came from most of the crowd.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

"awesome!" The Hermes kids yelled.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Seaweed brain." Annabeth said.

The Athena cabin looked shocked that someone wouldn't read that book.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't…"**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Everyone was shocked.

"A Fury! His first monster was a fury!" Thalia yelled.

"I guess." Annabeth said though she looked worried.

Everyone gestured for her to read.

They wanted to know what was going to happen next.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How?" Leo asked.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Ohhhh." Everyone said.

They got the title now.

"What ho?" Someone asked.

Chiron blushed.

"A pen? What's that going to do? "Jason asked.

"Is that...?" Annabeth asked.

Chiron nodded.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

Everyone sucked in a breath.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Whoa!" Leo yelled," awesome!"

Jason looked stunned.

"Riptide." Annabeth said smiling slightly.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Was heard from an Ares camper.

Everyone glared at him.

He just shrugged.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

Everyone tensed.

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Natural? "Piper asked.

Annabeth nodded," He's the best swordsman in centuries."

"Wow." Jason wanted to meet this guy.

He had little doubt that Percy wouldn't survive the roman camp.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

Everyone cheered.

"Not bad punk. "Clarisse said.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"Does he compare everything with water?" Jason asked.

Everyone nodded.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Travis turned to Katie.

"No." Katie said before he could even ask.

Travis pouted.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Nope." Thalia said popping the 'p'.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

"What's up with that dad? "Thalia asked looking at the sky.

Thunder rumbled.

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Someone asked from the back.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

"Huh?" was heard in the other direction.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"You need lieing lessons Grover." Travis said.

Connor pulled out a mini spiral notebook," Hmm...how about tomorrow at four?"

"Fine." Grover said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Apparently dad thinks so to." Jason said.

Thunder rumbled softly

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"That'll mess with your mind." Leo said.

"Done." Annabeth said.

"We'll read one more story then off to bed." Chiron said.

"I'll read next." Nico said.

He turned the page and started to read.

* * *

**Hope it's okay**

**Now you know how this is going to work **

**If you have any suggestions on one of the stories just say it in your review**

**see you later ; )**


	3. Boom!

**Hope you like it**

**this is for all the people who don't know**

**I have slight dyslexia so please be patent with the spelling mistakes**

**I'm trying not to make them( spell check helps a little bit)**

**hope it's okay**

**I'm going to do the stories in order**

**enjoy**

* * *

Nico looked at the top of the page,"The note at the top says:

_This is where the punk got his first spoil of war._

_Ares_

"Well that was...interesting." Leo said.

"I'm going to start," Nico said.

**Boom!**

"That sounds so like a title the god of war would use." One of the Athena muttered.

"What did you say!" Clarisse yelled.

Nico quickly started to read.

** There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

"What!" Everyone yelled.

"Action right at the beginning...Awsome!" Leo said smiling.

Everyone turned to him,"What?"

"Well we get the title now." Annabeth said.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

Everyone winced.

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"Wow Percy." Thalia laughed.

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay… ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. **

"That's self explanatory. Seeing as he just -" Malcolm was cut of by Clarisse.

"Shut up. I want to hear the action."

Malcolm was about to say something bet Nico continued reading.

**The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

"Really dad?" Thalia yelled.

Thunder rumbled loudly.

** That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

Everyone laughed as Grover blushed.

"Same old Percy." Thalia said.

Annabeth smiled sadly.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Everyone laughed harder when they read that.

Grover blushed a new shade of red that the campers have never seen.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"The Minotaur." Annabeth said worried," Momentos...this is when he gets the Minotaur horn!"

Everyone looked shocked.

"WE get to see what happened," Travis said smiling really big.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

"Yes get out of the car."Annabeth said quickly.

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"Big Tree?" Thalia asked looking slightly offended.

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Christmas tree sized?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth chuckled.

"When I see that Kelp head..." Thalia muttered.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't." Katie said sadly.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

"stubborn as always." Annabeth said fondly.

Everyone looked at her smiling sadly.

They all missed Percy.

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

Grover blushed when some of the campers snickered.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"They are horns!" Clarisse yelled.

Everyone turned to her.

"What? "Clarisse growled.

Everyone looked away.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But…"**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, **

"Grover the goat. "Nico chuckled.

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"That's because it's half bull." Malcom said matter of factly.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you-"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"Too loyal." Annabeth said.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"We should really mow that." A Demeter camper said.

Everyone nodded.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"Ew!" All the Aphrodite cabin squealed except Piper.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener."**

"You know it's Percy when you hear stuff like that." Connor said.

"Hey! Give me back my wallet!"

"Uh-oh." Connor ran out with an angry Ares camper right behind him.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

"Don't say it!" Almost everyone yelled.

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

The Athena cabin nodded in a approval.

**"But he's the Min-"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"She's smart." a Athena camper said.

Annabeth nodded.

**The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"His eye sight and hearing are terrible. He goes by smell." Annabeth informed.

"Now that the boring lesson is over lets read." Clarisse said.

Annabeth glared at her.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

"Did he just shh me? "Grover asked.

Everyone laughed silently.

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

"You think like Sally!" Travis laughed.

Annabeth smiled," That's a good thing."

"Wait...what? "Travis asked confused.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

Everyone laughed...

**Oops.**

...then fell on the floor laughing.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

Athena cabin nodded in approval.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"No it wasn't." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth your talking to a book." Leo said.

"Shut up."

**"Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Everyone sucked in a breath.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

Everyone sucked in more of their breath.

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

"Uh-oh, uh-oh ,uh-oh." Someone in the back kept chanting.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

Everyone let out the breath they were holding.

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"Uh-oh. "Travis said.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

"Stop with the depressing thoughts!" Leo yelled.

"There so close but so far." Piper said.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"No!" Everyone yelled except the Ares cabin.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.**

"NO!" Everyone yelled.

There was a moment of silence for Percy's mom.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

"Cue kick ass Percy!" Travis yelled.

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

"There goes Percy protecting his friends." Thalia said.

Everyone nodded.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"Red? That's kind of ironic seeing how it's the Minotaur..." a camper said to the right.

Everyone thought about that.

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"That's the worst insult I ever heard." One of the Ares campers yelled.

"Yeah that was kind of lame..."

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea-a stupid idea, **

"There always stupid. "Annabeth said rolling her eyes.

**but better than no idea at all.**

"Good point." Annabeth said.

** I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"Of course it didn't." Nico said.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

There was a shocked silence.

"How did he do that?"

"Who cares! That was awesome!" Leo yelled.

Annabeth's eyes went wide," The rain."

"Why?" Someone asked from the crowd.

"He gets stronger in water and it was raining when this happened."

"Hey Jason?" Leo asked.

"Yeah?"

"Do you get more powerful in the air?"

"I don't know." Jason answered honestly.

**How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Everyone winced.

"Ouch."

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

"Ew!" The girls said gagging.

The guys didn't look to good either.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"He figured something out!" Thalia said.

"Percy's smart when he wants to be." Annabeth defended.

"When is the word." Thalia said.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

"Talk about wrong timing." Connor yelled as he ran pass.

The Ares camper right behind him.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

"Not going to happen." An Ares camper growled.

** The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

"Whoa." Leo said in awe.

Everyone didn't know what say.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. **

"Ouch."

**When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"Wow." Jason said.

"Extra points for killing it with its own horn." Butch said.

"Rainbows." Leo muttered.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

The monster was gone.

Everyone cheered.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

Clarisse was going to say wimp but couldn't.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"Yeah he is." Annabeth said fondly.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"That's it." Nico said.

"Okay. Time for bed." Chiron said.

The campers groaned but stared for their cabins.

"We'll read tomorrow at the campfire!" Chiron yelled.

* * *

**Hope you liked it**

**Have any suggestions **

**please review**

**see you**


	4. Bathroom

**Hope you like it**

**I'm working on the next chapter for my other story**

**it's just taking a while**

**enjoy**

* * *

The next day the campers gathered at the campfire after dinner.

Everyone was excited to read more about Percy's adventures.

"I'll read." Clarisse growled," Note says

_I chose this one because I almost died laughing and I'm immortal!_

_The COOLEST GOD EVER Apollo_

"This should be good." Nico said.

**Bathroom**

"What kind of name is that?" A camper asked from the back.

Annabeth smiled.

Clarisse groaned.

She figured it out too.

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

Everyone single person turned to Clarisse at the same time.

She glared at them.

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

"Miss Princess? Wise girl is better." Annabeth said.

Clarisse glowered.

**"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. **

"Yep. It pretty mush means go to Hades. "A Athena camper said.

The newer campers eyes widened.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

"No chance at all." Annabeth said.

"Watch it girly." Clarisse growled.

"Just wait Clarisse. You know what's going to happen next." Annabeth said smirking.

Clarisse growled.

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like … the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

"Ohh! Burn!" Connor yelled.

He had a bruise on his face from when the Ares camper caught him yesterday.

"Shut up Stoll!" Clarisse brother yelled.

Connor gulped.

It was the guy from yesterday.

Travis smiled mischievously and put the wallet he just stole in his pocket.

Connor looked at Travis who nodded.

Connor nodded.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

"Like I care." Clarisse said.

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

"That's were he got the name." Thalia said in realization.

"Just think that he got it from_ Clarisse_." Nico said.

Everyone thought about _that._

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

"That was quick." Leo said.

"He was twelve." Annabeth defended her missing Boyfriend.

"Okay, okay." Leo said putting his hands up in surrender.

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking-as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out-that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

"Only Percy would think that when he's about to get dunked." Nico said laughing.

"Hey...why don't we have classier johns?" A camper said in the back.

Chiron cleared his throat," Let's continue shall we?"

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

"One he is big three He's good-looking. "Annabeth said.

"Yes he is." Drew said, "Wish he would bump you already."

Everyone glared at her.

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"I was not watching through my figures!" Annabeth yelled.

"Yes you were." Clarisse said.

Annabeth huffed.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

"Stubborn." Travis and Connor sang.

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.**

Nico smiled," Your going down now."

Clarisse glared at him.

He just shrugged.

** I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

Everyone started laughing.

The Ares cabin was glaring at them the whole time.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

Everyone was laughing so hard some fell to the floor.

The image was just too funny.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

"Well you did just make the plumbing explode." Annabeth said.

"Your talking to a book."

"Shut it Valdez."

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"Whoa, Cool!" Leo said.

"That is pretty cool." Jason said.

He really wanted to met this Percy guy.

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you …"**

**"I don't know."**

"Typical Percy response." Thalia snorted.

"Why are you guys so mean to him? "Piper asked.

"He's used to it don't worry."

Piper didn't know if that was a good thing.

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

"BURN!" Travis yelled.," Go Percy!"

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"Both. "Annabeth admitted.

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Annabeth has a plan." Katie said.

"Well I want to read." Travis said.

Katie gasped," You can read?"

"I can do many things Katie Kat." Travis said wiggling his eyebrows.

Katie blushed.

Everyone snickered.

Travis grabbed the book and turned it to the next page.

* * *

**Hope you liked it**

**please review**

**see you later : )**


	5. Trident

**Hope you like it**

**Sorry that I posted the last chapter wrong**

**I fixed it **

**to make it up to you I'm posting this**

**then I'm working on the next chapter of my other story (I'm almost done just thought you should know)**

**enjoy the ****chapter**

**sorry again **

* * *

"The note says:

_I picked this story because it was when I claimed my son. I miss him as much as you guys do._

_Poseidon_

Everyone looked down sadly at the reminder of the missing Percy.

"Here we go." Travis said after a long pause.

**Trident**

"This should be interesting." Travis said.

Everyone nodded.

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

All the Campers cheered.

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.**

The Athena cabin cheered.

** From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

Ugly cheering came from the Ares cabin.

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise,**

The campers had different emotions.

Sadness.

Angry.

Pity.

You name it.

** "Those are the flags?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

The Ares and Athena cabin Glareed at each other.

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do- repaint the flag?"**

"Repaint...the flag." Thalia said slowly," Kelp head."

Annabeth smiled and shook her head.

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.**

"That ironic." Nico murmured.

** "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help." **

"He didn't like how he helped." Annabeth said smiling sheepishly.

Thalia chuckled.

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.**

"Well duh." said a camper in the back.

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. **

Pollux looked down.

There was only one now.

Someone patted him on the shoulder but he didn't look to see who it was.

**Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. **

Piper shook her head.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty,**

"Hey!" The Hephaestus cabin yelled.

** and there were only four of them,**

"Wait? There there was only four? "Leo asked confused.

Nyssa nodded," After the Gods promised to claim their kids they started trickling in."

** but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest,**

Ares cabin growled.

** meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

"Unless you want to die kelp head." Thalia said.

"That's sentence was delightful." Nico said sarcastically.

"Your one to talk Mr. Emo."

"I'm not Emo!"

"Whatever let's you sleep at night."

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

"Oh! Rejected!" Travis yelled interrupting himself.

Some snickered.

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

The Hermes cabin turned to Annabeth.

"I didn't know who his dad was. Didn't want to chace it."

"But all the pranks we can do with that hat." Connor said.

Annabeth reached for her pocket.

Her hat was gone.

"Give me back my hat!"

Connor shamelessly handed it over

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you.**

Clarisse smiled smugly.

"Lamer." Someone whispered.

"Who said that!" Clarisse yelled.

All was silent.

** Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

"Theres the motto that makes everyone annoyed." Nico said brightly.

Annabeth glared at him.

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

"Aw you hurt his feelings." An Aphrodite camper said.

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

"So many things happen at that creek." Chiron said smiling sadly.

"Remember the Thalia and Percy incident?" Connor asked.

"The what? "Jason asked.

"I'm sure it'll show up." Thalia said.

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

Everyone snorted.

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

"He was just saying how he didn't want to fight. Now he's saying that he wants to." A camper said.

"That's Percy." Annabeth said.

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

Annabeth tensed," IT was there the whole time."

Everyone who knew what she was talking about winced.

"What was there the whole time?" Leo asked.

"You'll see."

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

"Something was." Annabeth muttered.

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

Every single person turned to Clarisse.

She just glared back.

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. **

"PIG EYES!" Clarisse yelled.

Chris came to her and tried t calm her down.

**She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords-not that that made me feel any better.**

"Well when you haven't had much training and half of_ Clarisse's_ cabin attacks..." Leo said trailing of when he got a look from Chris.

He just managed to calm down Clarisse.

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. **

"Should I be insulted?" An Ares camper growled.

Nobody answered that.

**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

Clarisse smirked again.

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

Annabeth winced.

She didn't know it was this bad.

_No wonder he was so mad..._

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

"No!" Annabeth yelled before she could stop herself.

Everyone turned to her.

She blushed," I...I like his hair."

There was some snickers...

...and aww's for you know who.( you can guess)

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

"Ouch." Leo said.

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

"You should be scared." Nico said and shivered.

Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"Trust me...you don't want to know." Nico said.

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

"He gave away..." Annabeth said.

"Yep." Clarisse said.

"Seaweed brain." Annabeth muttered.

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

"Not at all." An Athena camper said.

"Funny though." Travis said laughing.

Clarisse glared at him but he just kept on laughing.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

Chiron turned to the Ares cabin and looked at them sternly.

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy-warm and cold at the same time.**

"Wimp." An Ares camper said.

Everyone glared at him at the same time.

He retreated only slightly.

slightly.

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**

Jason looked...he didn't know how he felt," What kind of punishment is that?"

Chiron blushed," I should fix that."

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. **

Everyone smirked.

Clarisse cursed.

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

"Woo! GO Percy!" Connor and Travis yelled.

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

Jason's eyes widened.

"Awesome!" Leo yelled smiling.

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

Some of the newer campers mouths fell open...

...so did Jason's Leo's and Piper's.

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

"No that's Nico." Thalia said smiling.

"Oh ha ha pinecone face." Nico said.

Thalia whacked him.

"Hey!"

She shrugged.

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke **

Mixed emotions at _his_ name.

**racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

"The oldest trick in the book." Annabeth said.

Clarisse glowered.

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. **

"Percy did everything and he gets all the credit." Nico mumbled.

**Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

Everyone cheered.

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

Everyone turned to Annabeth.

She blushed slightly.

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

"Sweet." Leo said.

Annabeth was still thinking about what was happening with that hat...

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

"I'm surprised he figured it out." Thalia said.

"Me too." Annabeth said.

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

"Annabeth's motto." Travis said.

Under his breath he said," An Annoying motto."

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but …" She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

"That's for sure." A camper said to the left.

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

"What do you mean? "Leo asked confused.

"You'll see. 'Annabeth said.

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

**"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

Everyone who didn't know mouths dropped.

"He can heal himself with water? "Jason asked amazed.

"Yep." Annabeth said popping the 'p'.

**"I-I don't get it," I said.**

"Another Percy answer." Thalia said.

**Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

"You figured it out." Someone said.

Annabeth nodded," I had to prove it though.

**"What-"**

**"Just do it."**

"Bossy." Leo said.

Annabeth gave him a look.

"Sorry." Leo said quickly.

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

"So when he's in the water he's stronger and when he's out he goes normal?" Jason asked.

Annabeth nodded.

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want … I assumed it would be Zeus… ."**

Thunder rumbled in the clear night sky.

"Sorry. I just thought it was you because you had Thalia." Annabeth said to the sky.

The sky rumbled slightly.

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

"Uh-oh. What is that?" Leo asked.

"You'll see."

Leo was starting to hate those two words.

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

"What is that? "A newer camper asked.

Nobody answered him.

**It was looking straight at me.**

"With his lucky...defently." Nico said.

"He does have the worst luck." Thalia agreed.

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her-an enormous shadow with teeth-and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

Everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

Everyone winced at the image.

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

**"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't … they're not supposed to …"**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, **

"Well look who's there." Nico said.

If you thought about it was kind of ironic that Luke was mentioned right after that question.

**the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

Everyone turned to Clarisse, all had a look of disbelief.

"I was mad." Clarisse said blushing.

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

"You had to prove it." Thalia said.

"Of course I did. "Annabeth said.

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I-I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry…."**

"He's always apologizing. "A Hermes camper said.

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

"He's being claimed." Jason said.

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um …"**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

"The start of the kelp head." Thalia said.

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

"You make it sound so dramatic, Chiron." Annabeth said.

Chiron blushed," Time for bed."

Everyone groaned.

"We'll continue reading tomorrow."

* * *

**Hope you liked it**

**see you**


	6. Snakes

**Hope you like it**

**If you have any suggestions on the next story let me know**

**also sorry it took so long I was having one of those weeks were everything seems to go wrong and you can't stop it.**

**basically I had a rough week and then they decide to have finals in tomorrow! ugh...and to top it off I had writers block...(wrote this yesterday)**

**(today) I just found out I didn't have to do finals. Yeah helpful now that I stuied...ugh...**

**I'll update my other story tomorrow it's not quite finished it should be done tomorrow for all those who are waiting for it**

**I was going to update yesterday but I ran out of time and it might not help that the computer died**

**enjoy**

* * *

Everyone settled around the campfire.

"I'll read." Katie said.

Chiron handed her the book.

"Thank you." She said politely," Top says:

_He did something really unwise in this story. Sea spawn._

_Athena_

_P.s. Travis give back the wallet._

Everyone turned to Travis.

He took out the wallet mumbling," Tattled on by Athena ."

"I'm going to start." Katie said after she watch Travis get by the ARes camper for stealing his wallet.

**Snakes**

"I wonder what this one's about." Leo said.

Annabeth shrugged.

**I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

Thalia rolled her eyes," Boys."

"Hey!" I think you know who said that.

Thalia shrugged.

"You were eating burgers? Now I'm hungry." Travis said.

"You just ate." Katie said.

Travis shrugged.

**Annabeth slurped her shake.**

"That sounds good too.' Travis complained.

Katie rolled her eyes.

**Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

"That's weird usually he eats _more_ when he's nervous."Nico said.

Everyone thought about it and nodded.

Grover blushed.

**"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

"Hissing noise?" A camper asked.

Annabeth's eyes widened," Grover this was when we met M -"

"No spoilers!" Thalia yelled.

Annabeth huffed.

**I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

Annabeth shook her head.

She should have known better.

**"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

**"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

"That was actually not so bad." A Hermes camper said.

Grover blushed.

**"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

**Aunty Em ate nothing. **

"Clue number one." Nico said.

**She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

**"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

"Didn't work. "Annabeth said laughing.

Everyone laughed with her.

**"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

**"A lot of business on this road?"**

**"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built… most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

" To turn them to stone." Annabeth murmered.

**My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

"That's creepy." A random camper said.

**"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

**"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

"You have no idea." Grover said.

Everyone turned to him.

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

Grover blushed crimson at all the attention.

"Uhh..."

**"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

"Seaweed brian." Annabeth muttered.

"We all know this is a monster but which one? "Jason asked.

Silence...

"Um...You'll see soon." Annabeth said.

Everyone groaned.

They wanted to know as much as Jason.

**Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

"Bingo! someone figures it out!" Travis yelled.

Annabeth and many others rolled their eyes.

**"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, **

Annabeth snorted," Yeah right."

**long ago, when I was young. I had a… a boyfriend, **

"Boyfriend?" An Aphrodite camper squealed.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

Aphrodite girls.

**you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

The Athena cabin was thinking hard.

They didn't know why that sound familar...in a way.

**I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

"Is he in a trance?" Piper asked.

Annabeth nodded," We all were."

"That's no good." Connor said.

_Familar...snakes...boyfriend..._ Athena cabin thought trying to piece the facts together...

...they gasped.

Everyone turned to them.

Annabeth shook her head.

'Don't ruin the story.' she mouthed.

They nodded.

Everyone else looked confused about what just happened.

**"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

"Ringmaster?" Travis and Connor echoed," Who made such a horrible lie? Grover?"

Grover looked a little hurt, "It was Percy.

The Hermes cabin shook their head all at once witch looked a little wierd.

"And we thought that he had a lot going for him..." Travis said sadly.

Connor nodded sadly.

**She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

"That's clue... what number are we at? "Nico asked," I lost count."

Some snickered.

Nico smiled he didn't get that reaction much...if at all.

Everyone thought he was creepy and tried to stay clear of him.

It wasn't his fault. He had no control what happened in his messed up life...

**"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

**She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

**"We really should go."**

**"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

"Stop with the ringmaster thing." Chris said," It didn't work."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

**I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

"Only Percy would think that about a monster that's about to kill him." Thalia said.

Jason raised an eyebrow...

...nobody noticed.

"He was in a trace." Annabeth said defending her boyfriend.

"Still." Thalia said.

**"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

**"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

"Pose?" Jason asked, eyebrows scrunched together.

Many were thinking the same thing.

**"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**

**Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"**

**"Sure we can," I said. **

Everyone groaned at that statement.

**I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

"A lot of harm." Chiron said.

Everyone turned to him.

He gestured for them to continue reading.

**"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

**I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

Travis tsked," Bad Annabeth."

Annabeth gave Katie a look.

Katie, without looking up from the book whacked Travis up side the head.

"Ow!"

Annabeth smiled.

**Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."**

**"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

"Now he's starting to realize." Nico said ," About time too."

**"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

**"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

**Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

"Creeper." Someone whispered.

"Shut up Eddie!" A girl yelled beside him.

"Sorry."

**Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**

Grover grimaced.

**"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

**She still had no camera in her hands.**

"Clue number -"

"Nico shut up." Thalia said.

"Gee, sorry." Nico said.

Thalia whacked him.

**"Percy-" Annabeth said.**

**Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

"Yep in a trace." Thalia said.

"Awww, he wanted to listen to Annabeth!" Lacy squealed.

Annabeth blushed.

**"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil…."**

The Athena cabin held a breath.

Everyone else that didn't know what the lady was leaned forward in anticipation.

**"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

**"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

"A lot." Connor said.

**"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**

"What?" Leo asked confused.

Many of the campers gasped.

The figured it out.

"Medusa!" someone yelled.

The people who hadn't figured it out yet gasped.

"He met Medusa!?" Jason asked eyes wide.

Annabeth nodded.

Jason sat back in his chair.

"This isn't good..." A camper said.

Everyone agreed.

**"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.**

Everyone sigh with release...

**I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**

**I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

...then groaned.

**Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

"That's attractive." Travis said sarcastically.

The Aphrodite girls gagged.

**I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

"Annabeth to the rescue!" Connor said dramatically.

**More rasping-the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from … from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

**"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.**

**I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

"At least he knows he was in a trace." Annabeth said.

Everyone nodded but they were too into the story to do anything else.

**"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," **

All the Aphrodite cabin nodded.

"He's just didn't have a girlfriend." Drew said shabbily.

Everyone glared at her.

Annabeth was going to punch her one day.

**she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**

**I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens- a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

**Aunty Em.**

**Aunty "M."**

**How could I have been so stupid?**

"That's a question we all want answered." Thalia sighed.

Piper still thought that it was kind of mean to say that to their best friend.

**Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**

**But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

Everyone breathed in a breath.

**"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy,"**

Everyone subconsciously looked at the Athena cabin.

** Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

"deserved it." Annabeth mumbled.

**"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**

"Yes please run." Some people burst out.

**"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**

"That's kind of creepy..." Travis said.," I'm mean she wants to keep him..."

Everyone thought about it then shuddered.

**"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**

**"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

"Don't listen Percy." Annabeth said.

**"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

**I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

"Woo!" Travis and Connor cheered.

**"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

**That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.**

"Gee thanks." Grover said.

Everyone chuckled.

**Thwack!**

Everyone all around cheered.

"Yeah!" Leo yelled smiling like a maniac.

"Not bad." Clarisse growled.

"Thanks..." Grover said his face bright red.

**At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

**"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

**"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

Everyone cheered again.

"Go Grover." Travis cheered.

Grover turned red.

**I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

**Ker-whack!**

"Wooo!"

**"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.**

**Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**

**I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

Everyone laughed.

Annabeth smiled.

**Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**

"You don't hear that everyday in the store..." Leo said randomly.

Everyone looked at him wierd.

**"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

**"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but…" Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You-you've got a chance."**

**"What? I can't-"**

**"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

"That'll get him." Thalia nodded in approval.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"Percy's fatal flaw is loyalty." Annabeth explained.

Jason nodded in understanding.

**She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

"Why did you chose that one? "Connor asked wiggling his eyebrows.

Annabeth flushed.

Everyone snickered at her reddening face.

**Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"**

**"Would you speak English?"**

Everyone laughed.

**"I am!" She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."**

"See how easy that was?" Nico said slowly.

Annabeth glared at him.

**"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

**"Roooaaarrr!"**

"Nope." Nico said laughing with everyone else.

**"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

**"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**

"Great you jinxed it." Leo said.

**I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

"I still think that's awesome." Leo said grinning.

**I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

Everyone shivered.

**I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

**Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

"See?" Leo said dramatically.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

"There he goes being the hero." Nico said nonchalantly.

Everyone leaned in their seats.

**I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

**But she let me approach-twenty feet, ten feet.**

"Why is she letting him approach? "Jason asked raising an eyebrow.

nobody answered.

They were to into the story.

**I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**

"Nope it was that ugly." Grover said grimacing.

Many of the Aphrodite girls gagged.

**"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

"He wouldn't but you're a monster." Nico said.

Many in the audience 'shhed' him.

Nico frowned.

**I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass-the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

"Wimp." An Ares camper growled.

Everyone 'shhed' him before they even realized who talked.

**From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**

**Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

**She lunged at me with her talons.**

Everyone sucked in a breath...

**I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.**

...then breath out and cheered.

"Yeah!" Leo yelled.

**Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

"Ewww!" Many of the girls said making degusted faces.

**"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

**Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**

**Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

Even some of the boys looked disgusted at this.

**"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

**"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't … why didn't the head evaporate?"**

"Spoil of war punk." Clarisse said.

"Cool what did he do with it?" A newer camper asked.

Annabeth and Grover smiled," Secret."

The camper pouted.

**"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

"Sweet." Leo said.

**Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

"Just like those cartoon birds flying around your head." A Hermes camper said.

Everyone agreed.

**"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

**He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."**

Everyone laughed.

Grover smiled slightly remembering old memories.

**He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.**

**We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

**Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

The Athena cabin was about to say something all at once but Katie started reading faster to avoid it.

**Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**

"That's creepy." Leo said.

Everyone agreed.

**My face was burning.**

Everyone snickered.

** "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."**

**Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

**"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

**"You're insufferable."**

**"You're-"**

"Lover quirel!" The Aphrodite cabin squealed.

"The first of many." Thalia said.

Grover shook his head," Nope there ws more before that."

"Shut up." Annabeth said her face was bright red.

Everyone snickered.

The Aphrodite kept on whispering as they continued reading.

**"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"**

**I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

**I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

"What happened?" Piper asked.

"Long story," Annabeth said.

You could hear some people groan in the background.

**What had Medusa said?**

**Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**

"Don't listen." A camper said loudly.

**I got up. "I'll be back."**

**"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"**

**I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

Annabeth blinked," That was a smart idea."

The Athena cabin nodded in agreement.

"You went...?" Nico asked trailing off.

"Yep." Annabeth said.

"Went were?" Leo asked.

He didn't get an answer.

**In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**

"What's he doing?" A camper asked.

Annabeth smiled.

She missed her reckless boyfriend.

**I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

**The Gods**

**Mount Olympus**

**600th Floor,**

**Empire State Building**

**New York, NY**

**With best wishes,**

**PERCY JACKSON**

Silence...

"He did what!" Many in the crowd shouted.

"How is he alive?" Jason asked eyes wide.

Annabeth shrugged, "I still don't have a clue."

"I get mom's note now." Malcom said.

Everyone thought about that and agreed with Athena.

**"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

**I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!**

**"I am impertinent," I said.**

"At least he admitted it. "Thalia said.

**I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

**She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**

"Done." Katie said.

"That was inersting...can't wait for more!" Leo yelled grinning," I want to read!"

Katie handed him the book and he turning the page to the next story.

* * *

**Hope you liked it**

**sorry again for the really late update**

**please review **

**see you soon**


	7. 630 feet

**Hope you like it**

**I finally got better**

**it's a relief **

**I'll update my other story later today or tomorrow**

**im sorry I haven't been updating every other day. I promise ill try to update more frequently. The faster I update the closer i get to finishing the whole series! The first one ever! Then I'll move on to HOO. I really can't beleave I got this far...**

**I feel like I didn't do a very good job on this chapter...oh well ...**

**...enjoy**

* * *

Leo looked at the page."Okay note says:

_Sometimes it's not a good idea to sightsee on a quest brats. _

_Dionysus_

"That was cheerful." Piper said.

"Wait isn't he are half-brother?" Jason asked.

Thalia looked horrified by that statement," Let's never talk about that again. Ever."

"Okay here goes." Leo said.

**630 feet **

"What does that mean?" Piper asked.

"If I'm right about when this is..." Annabeth trailed off.

**We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**

"Isn't that a song?" Leo said.

Apollo cabin looked at each other and opened their mouths.

"We don't have time." Annabeth said.

They closed their mouths before they got to sing the song.

**We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**

"That's your instincts." Annabeth said.

"Witch he never listens to." Nico added.

"Well he is a seaweed brain. "Annabeth said fondly.

Jason wonder if anyone was missing him like that...

**I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**

"He has the worst luck doesn't he." Katie said.

Everyone agreed.

**The picture's caption read:**

"Here we go." Thalia said.

**Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers.**

Everyone snorted at that.

** The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. **

"Now Annabeth and Grover are part of the man hunt." Travis said grinning.

**His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.**

Annabeth scowled.

Percy had told her about him.

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**

"I wasn't." Annabeth admitted.

Travis and Connor smirked.

**The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**

All the demigods nodded.

They could relate.

**Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. **

Chiron smiled.

**I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. **

"Of course." Thalia said.

"The mist." Annabeth said.

**The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**

**Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**

"He saw it before..." Thalia trailed off.

"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked.

"You'll see." Thalia said," It was while you were...gone."

Annabeth nodded though she was curious about what exactly happened.

The campers looked on with confusion...except Grover.

**Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. **

"Huh? Did I miss something?" Leo asked.

Annabeth smiled, " Now that was funny."

Grover smiled.

**We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.**

"Awww." The Aphrodite cabin cooed.

"He still did." Annabeth said smiling.

Some of the crowd snickered.

**Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**

"Opps." Grover said blushing.

Everyone laughed.

**"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**

Everyone shivered.

"So he drools and talks in his sleep." Thalia said grinning.

Nico smiled," Blackmail."

**I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**

"Good." Some said from the crowd.

**Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**

"He laughs...sometimes." Nico defended lamely.

**"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**

"I almost forgot about his mom." Travis said sadly.

Everyone was silent even though most knew that Sally was alive.

**"I guess … if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**

"Good point. This quest is really confusing." Piper said.

"It was confusing." Annabeth admitted.

**shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**

**Where is it? Where?**

**Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**

"Do you always talk about food in your sleep?" Connor smirked.

Grover blushed bright read.

Everyone laughed.

**Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time-"**

**"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**

Thalia winced.

**Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. **

Annabeth blinked," I didn't realize that I was doing that."

**"Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**

**"What would you do if it was your dad?"**

**"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**

Everyone stared at Annabeth.

"It's better now." Annabeth said.

**"You're not serious?"**

**Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**

**"But how … I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital…."**

Annabeth laughed remembering Percy's face when he found out how she was born.

His face had been priceless.

**"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**

Everyone looked at Annabeth with sympathy.

Leo knew how it felt.

He went to foster home that pretended he didn't exist.

**I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**

"Awww." The Aphrodite cabin cooed...

...even the boys from the cabin...

**"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**

"At least he tried." Travis said.

"Yeah ." Annabeth said.

**Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**

"He is my father." Annabeth said.

**"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**

**"How old were you?"**

**"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**

"Seven?" Leo said eyes wide.

Annabeth nodded.

**"But … you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**

**"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**

Annabeth and Thalia smiled at each other before it turned sad.

They were thinking the same thing...Luke.

**I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.**

"Anyone else get the part about Grover snoring?" Travis asked grinning.

Grover blushed.

Everyone laughed.

Chiron smiled slightly.

**Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**

Annabeth made a face," Really seaweed brain?"

**"I want to do that," she sighed.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon,** Perc**y**?"

**"Only in pictures."**

**"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**

**I laughed. "You? An architect?"**

"Did he really ask_ you_ that? "Travis asked.

Annabeth nodded.

Travis shook his head and tsked.

**I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**

"Well if you think about it like that..." Nico trailed off.

**Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**

"Ohh..." Some winced.

"That was mean." Piper said.

"I know." Annabeth said.

**I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**

"You hurt his feelings. "Ashley said from the Aphrodite cabin.

Annabeth looked down.

**"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**

**"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**

**Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess … the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**

**"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"**

**We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.**

**"I suppose," she said at last.**

"A start of an era." Thalia said grinning.

Annabeth blushed.

The crowd snickered.

Chiron smiled.

**We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**

**Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**

Some snickering from the crowd.

**"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**

"So the sightseeing Mr. D warned about was Annabeth's idea." Connor and Travis said at the same time.

Annabeth blushed," I never found out wat happened."

"Well guess you'll find out now. " Will Solace said.

**"Sightseeing?"**

**"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**

"630 feet..." The Athena cabin trailed off as one.

"That's really creepy." A newer camper from Demeter said.

Then all of the suddenly they, the Athena cabin, snapped u and said," Somethings going to happen in the Arch."

Annabeth and Grover nodded.

Everyone in the crowd sat forward, they wanted to know what was going to happen.

**Grover and I exchanged looks.**

**I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**

**Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."**

"Well there wasn't..." Grover said trailing off.

**The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**

"He actually listened? "Annabeth asked surprised.

"Well..." Grover trailed off.

Annabeth huffed.

**I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**

"That sentence could be funny to overhear." Travis said laughing.

Katie rolled her and whacked him over his head.

**He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**

"Then there something." Leo said.

Grover blushed bright red as many people in the crowd snickered.

**But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**

"He has good instincts..." Piper said.

"...That he never listens to." Nico finished.

**"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**

**Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**

**"Well, Hade-"**

**Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place…. You mean, our friend downstairs?"**

The Stolls started to snicker.

**"Um, right," I said. "Our friend way downstairs. **

Travis started right out laughing.

Everyone looked at him like grown a second head.

**Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**

Nico nodded," The Helm of Darkness."

**"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said.**

"You think like Annabeth!" Connor laughed.

"Whew, I'm glad I don't think like you." Nico retorted.

"Burn!" Travis said grinning.

"Not cool." Connor said pouting.

** "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**

**"He was there?" I asked.**

**She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus-the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true…."**

**"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**

**"But then … how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.**

"That's a creepy thought." Jason said.

Nico snorted," My dad doesn't have time to follow them. He has so much to do in the Underworld."

**Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.**

**"We don't," Grover said.**

**"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**

"Nice subject change kelp head. Real smooth." Thalia said sarcastically.

**I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.**

"ADHD or is he claustrophobic?" Piper asked.( Sometimes I think I have ADHD.)

"Well he's the son of Poseidon so naturally he wouldn't like small confined places because the ocean like to be free and not held back." Annabeth said wisely.

Piper nodded.

**We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog,**

"Big fat lady?" A Aphrodite camper asked crinkling her nose.

Annabeth nodded amused.

** a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**

**We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**

**"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**

"That's a random question." Leo stated.

"Is she the monster?" Katie asked.

"I think so. I wasn't there so I'm not entirely sure." Annabeth told her.

**She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**

Now all the Aphrodite kids crinkled their noses.

**"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**

The Hermes cabin started clapping.

"Bravo! Theres hope for you yet!" A Hermes camper declared.

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Silence. It's getting late. We have to still finish this story." Chiron scolded.

**"Oh, the poor darlings."**

**The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**

**I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**

**"No," the lady told me.**

**She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**

"Now I'm sure she's the monster." Annabeth said.

Everyone leaned forward. They all wanted to find out more.

Clarisse was thinking about the fight that was soon to come.

**At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick.**

Everyone agreed...except Annabeth.

**Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**

Annabeth huffed.

**I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**

"Of course." Someone said from the back.

**The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."**

**"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**

**But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**

**Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**

"That was a bad move." Grover said.

"We couldn't leave him for five minutes." Annabeth agreed.

**Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**

**I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**

"Forked tongue?" Almost everyone in the crowd asked worried and a little scared.

**Wait a minute.**

**Forked tongue?**

**Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**

"Are you afraid of a doggie." Travis said in a voice you would use to talk to a baby.

**"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**

**"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**

**His parents pulled him back.**

"Smart parents." Rachel said.

She had walked in about five minutes ago.

**The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**

**"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**

**Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**

**"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."**

Annabeth paled," A Chimera."

Chiron looked on with sad eyes. That boy had the worst luck.

"I take it back." Travis said wide-eyed," You can be afraid."

**She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.**

**The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**

Some of the newer campers moved slightly backwards.

**The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**

"Can they see though the mist? "Rachel asked.

"It's possible." Annabeth said.

**The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA-RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS-IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS-EXT. 954.**

"Why, when he's about to die, does he read that?" An Hecate camper asked.

Everyone shrugged.

Everyone had different thoughts.

ADHD.

Insane.

Chose your pick.

**I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**

Everyone groaned.

**The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**

Two things happened at once:

Almost all the campers paled and Thalia yelled to the heavens" Really Dad!"

**I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**

Annabeth facepalmed," that was the wrong thing to say."

**She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**

**The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing.**

Everyone sucked in a breath...

** I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**

...and let out a breath.

**I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**

**I couldn't let them get hurt.**

"Here he goes being a hero."Nico said.

"He's about to die and he worries about the other people." Jason said.

"Percy's just like that." Thalia said.

Jason put the little bit of jealousy down.

** I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**

**Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.

**I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eyebrows.**

"Imagine him with no eyebrows." Travis said in a lame attempt to release some of the tension.

Some people laughed.

**Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**

**Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**

"The first of many." Thalia said.

"Wait what? "Jason asked wide-eyed.

He was ignored.

**Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**

"No!" Annabeth said.

**That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**

Everyone sucked in a breath of fear.

**My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**

"This is going from bad to worst." A camper yelled frantically.

**I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**

"Stop with the depressing thoughts." Nico said.

"Your one to talk death breath. "Thalia said.

Nico glared at her.

**I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**

Annabeth growled.

**The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**

**I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just … die. I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**

"Wimp." An Ares camper said.

Everyone glared at him.

**There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**

**If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**

"Just jump into the water already!" Nico yelled.

**"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**

**Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**

"No you won't jump!" May people yelled.

**The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.**

**"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**

**She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. **

Everyone closed their eyes for a moment.

**Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**

**I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle.**

Some of the campers looked jealous but that soon deflated.

**I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

**But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**

**"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**

**"Father, help me," I prayed.**

**I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**

"That's it." Leo said.

"We had a good night, Time for bed." Chiron said.

Everyone stared at him.

* * *

**Hope you liked it **

**see you**


	8. Thrill

**hope you like it**

**sorry for the wait**

**had to update my other story first **

**PEOPLE WHO ARE READING MY OTHER STORY**

**I want to warn you: It might take A while to finish the next chapter**

**I'm doing all I can to get it to you when I can**

**sorry again**

**and to a person I will not name that reviews sent back in time( first book) yes I can spell awkward I just started Sent back in time and I got better at spelling and commentary as I went along.( at least I think I did)**

**Theres still mistakes, I get that, and I'm trying hard not to make them.**

**BACK TO REST OF THE AN**

**I think there's going to be one more story on the first book then I'll start on the other books**

**Any suggestions on some from the sea of monsters?**

**Also I don't really have an excuse for not updating at least a couple of days after I updated my other story.**

**I've just been having funk and I think this chapter is slightly...not good?OOC? I tried but...yeah**

**enjoy though...**

**For the record all your reviews( The positive ones) helped me finish this chapter today.**

* * *

Despite the bad send off all of the half blood went to bed waiting for the next campfire.

The next day everyone gathered at the campfire.

"Can I read?" Jason asked when everyone was settled.

Everyone was excited to read the next story.

"Yes." Chiron said handing Jason the book.

"Okay note says,

_One of Percabeth's most famous !_

_Aphrodite_

All of the Aphrodite campers squealed.

Annabeth groaned.

"Okay," Jason said staring to read again.

**Thrill **

Annabeth groaned.

She had a suspicion about what was going to happen.

**The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. **

"Water park?" A Hermes camper asked with a grin.

Annabeth groaned.

Her suspicion was right.

"You guys went to a water park? "Travis asked.

Grover nodded.

"Why were you there?" A camper asked from the back.

"Long story."

**Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.**

"So an old water park? "Connor asked.

"With nobody around..." Travis grinned at his brother.

"No!" Annabeth yelled.

They pouted.

**The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.**

**"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."**

"Ohhh, he shouldn't have said that." Nico said glancing at the Aphrodite cabin.

There faces were red in anger.

**"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."**

"Yes please before the hotties attack." Leo said.

**"Why? I thought you hated Ares."**

All the Ares campers growled.

**"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."**

**"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.**

"Listen to them." Piper said looking at her cabin mates.

They looked like they were about to throw an Ares camper across the amphitheater.

**"Who is she? Echidna?"**

The Aphrodite cabin snapped at that moment.

They all yelled," WHAT!"

There faces were bright red in rage.

Jason started reading quickly to avoid an Aphrodite makeup and flying shoe attack.

**"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."**

Some people snickered.

Grover's faces brightened considerably.

**"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."**

The Hephaestus cabin nodded glaring at the Aphrodite campers.

**"What's your point?" he asked.**

**"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"**

"Nice way to change the subject." Leo said.

He really wanted to meet Percy.

He seem like a nice guy.

**"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.**

The Hermes campers smiled.

They didn't know the hard true about those shoes.

Travis and Connor didn't smile though.

Chiron took their pair because it was 'against the rules' to fly into town at three o'clock in the morning to try to sneak into Olympus.

**He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"**

Everyone laughed.

Grover blushed.

**Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.**

"Did he make Annabeth go first? "Travis asked.

"I don't...Travis!"

Katie smacked him upside the head.

**The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?**

Everyone laughed at the ridiculous names.

"No wonder they closed." Connor said laughing.

**No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.**

"It's quiet too-"

"If you quiet again I'll smack you."

"Oh come on kit kat."

Katie smacked Travis.

"Quiet." Travis whispered.

**We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-**

Everyone leaned forward...

**"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."**

...Then back.

**"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just-"**

"Watch me."

Travis faked gasped,"I didn't know you were like that Annie!"

"Don't call me Annie!"

**She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.**

"Man there was a lot of waterland's in that paragraph." Jason said looked up from the book.

Everyone nodded.

**"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.**

Some of the Aphrodite campers rincled their noses, realizing for the first time, what they must have looked like.

**We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love.**

"Your going to the... AHHH!" Lacy said then shrieked.

Annabeth blushed scarlet as the campers snickered and the Aphrodite's gossiped about the WHAT this meant.

**I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"**

**"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."**

Everyone nodded though The Hephaestus cabin did it reluctantly.

**"What about Aphrodite's husband?"**

**"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. **

Annabeth glared the godess was the problems with this whole situation.

She hated the queen of the gods _so_ much.

**he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"**

**"She likes bikers."**

Travis and Connor snorted.

**"Whatever."**

**"Hephaestus knows?"**

A certain cabin glared at a certain goddesses campers.

**"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like …"**

"Like...?" Travis said raising his eyebrows.

**She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."**

Everyone leaned forward slightly.

**In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.**

**Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!**

"Wow. That's really cheesy." Travis said.

"EEEEPP!" Guess which cabin yelled that.

**Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."**

**Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.**

**"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"**

"Yeah that is too easy..." Malcolm said trailing off.

Annabeth winced when she remembered what would happen next.

**Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.**

**"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder …"**

"H..." Another Athena camper said.

Leo's eyebrow scrunched together in thought," H..."

( from the HOO series it says that Leo's smart and i agree. If he wasn't smart then how would the Agro II be there?)

**"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"**

**He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."**

**"Nothing-like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"**

"That was kind of harsh." Jason said.

Grover looked down slightly.

Annabeth gave him a hug.

**Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."**

**"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."**

**"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.**

**"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."**

**Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"**

Everyone snickered.

Grover blushed.

**"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"**

"He didn't..." Piper said turning to Annabeth.

"He did."

**"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.**

More snickering this time it wasn't about Grover.

**"What's the problem now?" I demanded.**

**"Me, go with you to the … the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"**

"Who's going to see you?" Leo asked Annabeth.

Annabeth shrugged but her face was bright red.

**"Who's going to see you?"**

"Hey I think like Percy!" Leo said grinning.

**But my face was burning now, too. **

Many snickered but you could hear the 'awwwwwwww!' in the background.

**Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated.**

"Hey!"

**"Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.**

"You're the one that complained." A camper in the back pointed out.

"I know." Annabeth admitted.

She really didn't want them to read what was going to happen next.

**We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.**

Aphrodite's children didn't know what to think about that.

Piper on the other hand looked disgusted.

**I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."**

"Awww, Annie's jealous...Ow!"

"That's what you get when you mess with Annabeth." Travis stage whispered gesturing to Leo, who was rubbing the side of his face.

**"What?"**

**"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."**

**The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.**

**"Wait," Annabeth said.**

**"Too late."**

**"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."**

"Wow, could have figured out that earlier..." Leo said figuring out who set the trap.

Annabeth nodded to him silently.

**Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.**

"Uh-oh." A camper said from the back.

Everyone else was thinking along the same lines.

**Grover yelled, "Guys!"**

**Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. **

"Huh?" Was heard from some of the campers.

**They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.**

**"We have to get out," I said.**

"Well duh kelp head." Thalia said rolling her eyes.

**"Duh!" Annabeth said.**

Thalia and Annabeth smiled at each other.

**I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.**

**"Come on!" Grover shouted.**

**He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.**

"Good try G-man." Nico said.

Grover looked sad, remembering how Percy would always say that to him.

Man, he missed Percy.

**The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute … Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight …"**

"Oh! WE so need to ask our dad for a copy of this!" Connor said to his brother.

Travis grinned, This should be interesting."

All the other campers had a different reaction.

Some smiled and grinned.

Some their eyes went wide.

Some didn't care. (I think you know who they are.)

**"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"**

**We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic … things poured out.**

**Annabeth screamed.**

"Annabeth screamed..." Thalia trialed off.

Everyone looked at Annabeth in surprise.

Annabeth shivered," You'll see."

**It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.**

**"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"**

The whole of Athena cabin shuddered at the mention of the dreaded bugs.

Thalia gave Annabeth a hug.

(I don't fear spiders unless there crawling on me. Just thought I would let you know.)

"Ohhhh..." Said most of the campers as the realation hit them.

**I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.**

**The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.**

"Good point." A camper from... whatever cabin said.

Usually the Athena cabin would comment like that but right now they were frozen in fear.

**Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.**

Annabeth looked down embarrassed.

**"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.**

Some campers leaned forward in their chairs.

**The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.**

"Whoa those things are deadly..." Nico said then grinned.

The people closest to him scooted away.

"Poor shoe." An Aphrodite camper sniffed.

**Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.**

**Think, I told myself. Think.**

"Don't hurt yourself." Thalia said grinning.

**The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.**

**"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.**

Even Chiron was leaning slightly forward on his legs.

**Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?**

**Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.**

"That's actually not bad." Malcolm said snapping out of it for a second**.**

**"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"**

**"But-"**

**"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.**

**Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.**

**"Five, four-"**

Everyone leaned slightly...

**Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.**

...a little more.

**I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.**

**"Two, one, zero!"**

"Here we go." Travis said grinning hugely.

"This is going to be awesome." Connor said matching his brothers grin.

**Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.**

"I bet that made you dizzy." Nico said off handedly.

**The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.**

The Hephaestus campers didn't know if the should be happy or not about that.

**Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.**

"So got to get that tape..."You know who said that.

**But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.**

An Aphrodite girl screamed.

Everyone turned to her, alarmed.

"There riding the Thrill ride o' love!" She screamed.

Most rolled their eyes though some screamed with her.

**Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.**

"EEEEEEPPPPPP!"

**Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.**

**If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.**

"That's not good..." Chiron trailed off thinking.

**"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.**

"What?" and "Huh?" Were heard around the crowd.

Annabeth smiled.

That Seaweed brain had a good idea.

**"Are you crazy?"**

**"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.**

"Dangerous but not bad..."

**Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.**

"EPPPPPPPP!" You defiantly know who screamed that.

**"On my mark," I said.**

**"No! On my mark!"**

**"What?"**

**"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"**

**"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"**

"You know how to shut him up." Thalia teased.

"Shut up." Annabeth said.

**She hesitated … hesitated … then yelled, "Now!"**

**Crack!**

"Crack!" Some campers yelled worried.

Annabeth grinned.

**Annabeth was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.**

**Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.**

"Uh-oh," was repeated over and over again.

**Something grabbed me from behind.**

"Grover?" Jason asked.

Annabeth nodded.

**Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"**

**Grover!**

Everyone cheered.

Grover turned beat red, looking down.

**In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.**

Everyone groaned.

**"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"**

"Are you saying I'm fat?" Annabeth asked Grover jokey.

Grover blushed," No..."

**We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.**

**We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale.**

Everyone exploded in laughter.

**Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.**

Everyone cheered again.

**Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.**

**A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.**

"And their still being filmed." Nico said.

**"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"**

Everyone laughed.

"Only perce." Thalia said smiling.

**The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.**

"Probably good. It was sure interesting to read." Travis said grinning.

**I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."**

"What?" Some campers asked.

"Long story." Annabeth answered.

"well that's it. Who wants to read?" Jason asked.

"I will." Chiron said takeing the book from Jason.

He turned to the next page and began to read.

* * *

**Again sorry it was such a long time sence I updated**

**I'm working on the next chapter of sent back in time**

**please review**

**see you later**


	9. Jerk

**Hope you like it**

**last story for the lightning thief**

**moving on to the sea of monsters after this chapter**

**please help and give suggestions**

**remember I'm going in order so I can't go back so choose wisely on the first story for the sea of monsters**

**I'm about half way done with my other story's chapter**

**As your reading this I'm working on the next chapter for my other story**

**enjoy the chapter everyone ...I feel like I say that to much...eh whatever...**

* * *

Chiron looked at the page.

"The note says

_ This is one of the moments that made me proud._

_Poseidon _

"Well this should be interesting." A camper said from the back.

"Okay, children, I'm starting now."

**Jerk**

The word sounded alien coming out of Chiron's mouth.

Everyone leaned forward, curious.

Annabeth was thinking on what this story was about.

**A Coast Guard boat picked us up,**

"Huh?" Most of the camper said that didn't know the story.

** but they were too busy to keep us for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around our shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.**

Travis and Connor grinned," Free stuff!"

The rest of the Hermes campers cheered with them.

Many rolled their eyes.

**Our clothes were sopping wet, even mine. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, I'd silently prayed they wouldn't pick me out of the water and find me perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows.**

"That's still cool." Leo said.

** So I'd willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, my usual waterproof magic had abandoned me. I was also barefoot, because I'd given my shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of us was barefoot than wonder why one of us had hooves.**

"Wouldn't the mist cover that?" Piper asked.

"Percy had a good idea, just go with it." Annabeth said.

**After reaching dry land, we stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. I felt as if I'd just come back from the dead—which I had. My backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt.**

A lot of eyes widened at that.

** My heart was even heavier from seeing my mother.**

**"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way—"**

**"It was a trick," I said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."**

Every single Athena camper raised an eyebrow in unison.

**"Hey," she warned.**

**"You get it, don't you?"**

**She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."**

"Get what?" Piper asked.

"If it doesn't tell you then I'll tell you." Annabeth said gesturing to the book.

**"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody—"**

"Yes would somebody!" Travis yelled.

In the background Grover blushed slightly.

**"Percy ..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry..."**

Everyone looked down sadly.

They knew she was alive but hearing about what happened to her...

**I pretended not to hear her. If I talked about my mother, I was ****going to start crying like a little kid.**

"Awwww. " the Aphrodite cabin cooed.

"Wimp." Clarisse said.

**"The prophecy was right," I said. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. **

Without thinking everyone turned to Nico.

**Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, **

The newer campers and the lost hero trio's eyes went wide...

**and Hades's helm,**

...even wider.

** a****nd framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."**

**Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"**

The campers shivered.

They knew the answer.

**I stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."**

Everyone leaned forward.

**There he was, waiting for us, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.**

Everyone at once turned to the Ares campers who just smirked.

**"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see me. "You were supposed to die."**

"Wow that was a nice hello." Leo snorted.

"Just you wait Ares." Annabeth whispered.

**"You tricked me," I said. ****_"You _stol****e the helm and the master bolt."**

"He didn't...?" Jason asked.

"He did." Thalia said.

"And to think he's our brother..."

Thalia and Jason looked slightly appalled.

"Hey what's wrong with my dad?" An Ares camper snarled.

"Well let me think for a moment...nah read Chiron."

The camper's nostrils flared.

**Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power—that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."**

**"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."**

Suspicious looks from the new campers were directed at Clarisse.

"It wasn't me." Clarisse growled.

**The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at _him. _And Hades is still looking for this ..."**

Everyone leaned forward. . .

**From his pocket he took out a ski cap—the kind bank robbers wear—and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.**

Nico looked so angry that the people who were closest to him moved away ten feet.

"He's creepy." Leo whispered to Jason.

**"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.**

**"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."**

Almost every person sitting and listening to this looked appalled.

**"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.**

"Like he cares." Thalia snorted.

**Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."**

"That's so wrong." Leo said.

**"You gave me the backpack in Denver," I said. "The master bolt was in there the whole time."**

**"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"**

"How'd he know?" A new camper asked curious.

"He's the God of war, he would know about all the weapons." Annabeth said helpfully.

"Oh, okay."

**I wasn't sure how Ares knew about that, but I guess a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.**

Annabeth blushed when the crowd snickered on how they both had the same thought.

**"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades... Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way—no loss. I still had the weapon."**

**"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" I said. "Why send it to Hades?"**

"Good question." An Athena camper pondered.

**Ares got a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if he were listening to another voice, deep inside his head. "Why didn't I ... yeah ... with that kind of firepower ..."**

**He held the trance for one second ... two seconds...**

"That's weird." Malcom said,

The campers agreed.

Chiron knew what it meant but decided to just read it.

**I exchanged nervous looks with Annabeth.**

**Ares's face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."**

Everyone grudgingly agreed.

**"You're lying," I said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"**

**"Of course it was!" Smoke drifted up from his sunglasses, as if they were about to catch fire.**

"Oh he's pissed." Travis said.

""If his glasses caught fire would it hurt him I mean like for a second?" Connor asked.

Nobody answered that question.

**"You didn't order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."**

Silence rained down on the crowd.

The campers that when through the war took a breath.

**"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"**

"Who said anything about dreams?" Nico asked.

There was a lot of shrugging.

**I hesitated. "Who said anything about dreams?"**

"Haha you think like Percy." Thalia teased Nico.

Nico shrugged.," It's better than some."

Was it Thalia's imagination or did Nico glance at the Stolls?

**Ares looked agitated, but he tried to cover it with a smirk.**

"Didn't work that well." Annabeth informed.

**"Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid.**

"Changing the subject." The Stolls sang.

** You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."**

"Yeah right." Leo snorted.

He didn't notice that some in the crowd paled...

... or that everyone was leaning forward.

**He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet and out charged a wild boar, even larger and uglier than the one whose head hung above the door of cabin seven at Camp Half- Blood. The beast pawed the sand, glaring at me with beady eyes as it lowered its razor-sharp tusks and waited for the command to kill.**

**I stepped into the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."**

A shocked silence followed.

"Is he crazy? "Jason asked.

"Yes." Came from everyone that knew Percy.

"He just challenged a god..." Piper trailed off.

"It wasn't the last..." Annabeth said quietly.

**He laughed, but I heard a little edge to his laughter ... an uneasiness. **

An Ares camper snorted," Not likely."

**"You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."**

**"Scared?"**

"Is he _trying_ to get killed?" Jason asked.

"Nope. He's being Percy." Grover said.

**"In your adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. **

"Correction he's really pissed." Travis said.

**"No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."**

**Annabeth said, "Percy, run!"**

"Yes run!" The crowd that didn't know Percy shouted**.**

**The giant boar charged.**

**But I was done running from monsters. Or Hades, or Ares, or anybody.**

"Here come kick butt Percy!" Travis and Connor cheered.

**As the boar rushed me, I uncapped my pen and sidestepped. Riptide appeared in my hands. I slashed upward. The boar's severed right tusk fell at my feet, while the disoriented animal charged into the sea.**

**I shouted, "Wave!"**

"That's cheating!" Clarisse growled.

**Immediately, a wave surged up from nowhere and engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once in terror. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.**

Everyone cheered.

**I turned back to Ares. "Are you going to fight me now?" I asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"**

"Ohhhhh!" The Hermes cabin chorused.

**Ares's face was purple with rage. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—"**

**"A cockroach," I said. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"**

"He's going to die." leo said.

Annabeth just smile.

"He's really good at annoying the gods I can say that." Jason said.

**Flames danced along the top of his glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."**

**"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and the bolt are mine and _you _have to go away."**

"He's risking a lot here." A camper in the back pointed out.

A lot of heads nodding.

**Ares sneered.**

**He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"**

**I showed him my sword.**

"Classic it is." Travis confirmed...

**"That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is."**

Travis face turned slightly disturbed.

** The baseball bat changed into a huge, twohanded sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.**

"Got to admit though that's a cool sword." Nico said.

"You're only saying that because there's a skull on it." Thalia said rolling her eyes.

"That's not true!" Nico protested.

It didn't help that he blushed red.

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "Don't do this. He's a god."**

"True." Leo said.

**"He's a coward," I told her.**

"Also true." Annabeth said.

**She swallowed. "Wear this, at least. For luck."**

**She took off her necklace, with her five years' worth of camp beads and the ring from her father, and tied it around my neck.**

"Awwww!" The Aphrodite cabin cooed and some other girls too.

"That's so cute!" Lacy squealed.

**"Reconciliation," she said. "Athena and Poseidon together."**

**My face felt a little warm, but I managed a smile.**

"He's blushing!" A Aphrodite campers squeaked.

**"Thanks."**

**"And take this," Grover said. He handed me a flattened tin can that he'd probably been saving in his pocket for a thousand miles. "The satyrs stand behind you."**

**"Grover ... I don't know what to say."**

"Me neither." Nico said.

"Hey it was a good gift." Grover protested.

"Whatever you say G-man."

**He patted me on the shoulder. I stuffed the tin can in my back pocket.**

**"You all done saying good-bye?" Ares came toward me, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. "I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"**

"Straighter teeth?" Leo said.

Everyone stared at him.

"Sorry first thing that popped up."

They stared a few seconds longer before turning to the book.

( Btw have u ever done that when a teacher or friend asked you something and you just blurted out the first thing that came to mind? I have...some times it's embarrassing...)

**A smaller ego, I thought,**

"That too." Leo said grinning.

** but I said nothing. I kept my feet in the surf, backing into the water up to my ankles. I thought back to what Annabeth had said at the Denver diner, so long ago: _Ares _has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to how to wisdom sometimes.**

"So he does listen." Annabeth said.

"Only you he does." Thalia said.

Annabeth blushed red.

**He cleaved downward at my head, but I wasn't there.**

Everyone leaned forward. . .

**My body thought for me. The water seemed to push me into the air and I catapulted over him,**

All eyes were on the book.

** slashing as I came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.**

**He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."**

"Not bad? That sounded epic!" Leo said excitedly.

( I just thought of something... what if Leo was addicted to kool-aid like Dakota?...)

**He slashed again and I was forced to jump onto dry land. I tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what I wanted.**

"He is the god of war." Annabeth said.

Everybody 'shhed' her.

Annabeth huffed.

** He outmaneuvered me, pressing so hard I had to put all my concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. I kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.**

"Get in close!" A random camper yelled.

**Get in close, Luke had told me once, back in our sword class. _When you've got the shorter _blade, get in close.**

Said random camper blushed red after that sentence.

**I stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked my blade out of my hands and kicked me in the chest. I went airborne—twenty, maybe thirty feet. I would've broken my back if I hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.**

A lot a breaths let out in release.

**"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"**

Cue groaning.

"Oh come on!" Will yelled.

"He has the worst luck." Thalia said shaking her head.

**I was seeing double. My chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but I managed to get to my feet.**

"Come on Percy! Beat that loser!" Travis yelled.

Many thought he was either suicidal or really brave to call Ares a loser.

**I couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice me in half, but out of the corner of my eye I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.**

**"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"**

**A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kid on TV ... what the heck ..."**

"Like I said worst luck ever." Thalia said.

"What are you guys sad about?" Katie asked the Stolls.

"Why did he get to have a national man hunt?" The complained.

Let just say a lot of eyes rolled.

**"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."**

**I rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand. ****I ran for my sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares's face, only to find my blade deflected again.**

"This is intense." Pollux said.

**Ares seemed to know exactly what I was going to do the moment before I did it.**

**I stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.**

"Yeah get him!" Chiron yelled.

Everyone stared at him.

Chiron cleared his throat," moving on."

**"Admit it, kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."**

**My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, noticing every little detail. I could see where Ares was tensing. I could tell which way he would strike. At the same time, I was aware of Annabeth and Grover, thirty feet to my left. I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.**

Complete silence.

"That's a lot to take in even if your ADHD." Annabeth said amazed.

"I think I know what the flapping wings are." Nico said darkly.

**More sirens.**

**I stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped my sleeve and grazed my forearm.**

The crowd winced as one.

**A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns.' Set them on the ground. Now!"**

"Guns?" Leo asked.

"The mist." Piper said.

**Guns?**

"I think like Percy!" Leo said grinning like an idiot.

( btw I love Leo. He's one of my favorite characters.)

**I looked at Ares's weapon, and it seemed to be flickering; sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two-handed sword. I didn't know what the humans were seeing in my hands, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't make them like me.**

"Probably not with his luck." Nico said.

**Ares turned to glare at our spectators, which gave me a moment to breathe. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.**

**"This is a private matter!" Ares bellowed. "Be gone.'"**

**He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.**

Many faces looked appalled.

though they wouldn't admit it some of the Ares campers did too.

( don't tell them I told you...)

**Ares roared with laughter. "Now, little hero. Let's add you to the barbecue."**

"No he won't." Annabeth growled.

The people closest to he edged away slowly.

**He slashed. I deflected his blade. I got close enough to strike, tried to fake him out with a feint, but my blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting me in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in after me.**

"That is a really stupid idea." Malcom said.

**I felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and suddenly I had an idea.**

"Oh-no run! He has an idea!" Thalia yelled.

Some people jumped at her outburst.

**_Little waves, _I thought. And the water behind me seemed to recede. I was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building, like carbonation behind a cork.**

The Athena cabin was thinking hard.

**Ares came toward, grinning confidently. I lowered my blade, as if I were too exhausted to go on.**

**_Wait for it, _I told the sea.**

"Oh!" The whole of the Athena cabin shouted.

"What? "Travis asked eagerly.

A amper opened him mouth but Annabeth yelled," Don't ruin it!"

He closed his mouth and Travis pouted.

** The pressure now was almost lifting me off my feet. Ares raised his sword. I released the tide and jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.**

Everyone cheered.

**A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed.**

Cue laughter and more cheering.

** I landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as I'd done before. He turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn't anticipate the trick. I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god's heel.**

Everyone's eyes widened and the crowd went silent.

"He actually..." Jason said mouth a gap.

Annabeth smiled.

There was a few more seconds of silence before the night erupted in cheers.

**The roar that followed made Hades's earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.**

"Wow someone's having a tantrum" Travis teased Clarisse.

She growled at him.

** Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god's boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.**

"Probably was the first time that happened in a while. "Nico said.

**He limped toward me, muttering ancient Greek curses.**

**Something stopped him.**

Everyone leaned forward unconsciously.

**It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse. Light faded. Sound and color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, and making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless.**

The campers that knew what just happened paled.

Even the Stolls paled.

**The darkness lifted.**

**Ares looked stunned.**

So did most of the new campers.

**Police cars were burning behind us. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Grover stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares's feet, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.**

**Ares lowered his sword. "You have made an enemy, godling," he told me. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."**

"That was so stupid." Jason said.

"You mean awesome!" Leo said

"He just got cursed."

Grover and Thalia flinched.

They knew how the curse effected Percy.

**His body began to glow.**

**'''Percy!" Annabeth shouted. "Don't watch!"**

The demigods without realizing it turn as well.

It was instinct.

**I turned away as the god Ares revealed his true immortal form. I somehow knew that if I looked, I would disintegrate into ashes.**

"Glad that didn't happen to me." Jason said.

"Me too." Piper said.

Jason looked at her.

She blushed.

**The light died.**

**I looked back. Ares was gone. The tide rolled out to reveal Hades's bronze helm of darkness. I picked it up and walked toward my friends. But before I got there, I heard the flapping of leathery wings. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats and fiery whips drifted down from the sky and landed in front of me.**

"So I was right." Nico said.

**The middle Fury, the one who had been Mrs. Dodds, stepped forward. Her fangs were bared, but for once she didn't look threatening. She looked more disappointed, as if she'd been planning to have me for supper, but had decided I might give her indigestion.**

Some laughed at the thought.

Others looked appalled.

**"We saw the whole thing," she hissed. "So ... it truly was not you?"**

**I tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise.**

"Her face was priceless." Annabeth said.

Grover nodded in agreement.

**"Return that to Lord Hades," I said. "Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war."**

**She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again ..."**

"That as close as you get to a warm goodbye with her." Nico said.

Some shivered.

**She cackled, savoring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, and disappeared.**

**I joined Grover and Annabeth, who were staring at me in amazement.**

"Well who wouldn't? "Annabeth said.

They excepted that statement.

**"Percy ..." Grover said. "That was so incredibly ..."**

**"Terrifying," said Annabeth.**

**"Cool!" Grover corrected.**

"I like Grover's better." Travis and Connor said in unison with huge grins on their faces.

Grover blushed.

**I didn't feel terrified. I certainly didn't feel cool. I was tired and sore and completely drained of energy.**

"Well he did just fight a god." Will said.

**"Did you guys feel that... whatever it was?" I asked.**

More paling though less than before.

**They both nodded uneasily.**

**"Must've been the Furies overhead," Grover said.**

**But I wasn't so sure. Something had stopped Ares from killing me, and whatever could do that was a lot stronger than the Furies.**

Many nodded making the new campers confused.

**I looked at Annabeth, and an understanding passed between us. I knew now what was in that pit, what had spoken from the entrance of Tartarus.**

Now the new campers understood and paled.

** I reclaimed my backpack from Grover and looked inside. The master bolt was still there.**

**Such a small thing to almost cause World War III.**

"It not small." Jason warned.

**"We have to get back to New York," I said. "By tonight."**

**"That's impossible," Annabeth said, "unless we—"**

**"Fly," I agreed.**

"Is he crazy?" Nico asked.

Everyone stared at him.

"Don't answer that."

**She stared at me. "Fly, like, in an airplane, which you were warned never to do lest Zeus strike you out of the sky, _and _carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"**

**"Yeah," I said. "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."**

"Yep, he's insane." Nico confirmed.

"Well that's it." Chiron said," Time for bed."

Cue groaning and complaining.

* * *

**I hope you like it**

**I'm working on the next chapter of my story as you read...well it depends on when your reading this...whatever...**

**anyway please review**

**see you =)**


	10. Dodgeball

**hope you like it **

**sorry for the long wait**

**I was so close to being done with my other story I just had to finish it**

**sorry but I couldn't help it**

**And then I started the sequel series to that series**

**I'm back to updating now though**

**Guess what I found out about the house of Hades? It's a small spoiler but we get to learn Reyna's surname and we get to see Grover.**

**Little spoiler but eh what the heck**

**enjoy**

* * *

Everyone sat around the campfire. The fire was about five feet high with all the excitement of reading the next story about their hero.

"I want to read!" Connor said.

Chiron handed him the book.

"Okay note says,

_I had to choose a story before I went to my forges. Here it is._

_Hephaestus_

"Okay." Connor said.

All of the camper that heard there dad's name smiled.

"I'm going to start now." Connor said.

**Dodgeball**

"This should be interesting. "Travis said grinning.

Annabeth had a suspicion where this story was going.

"I think this is a year after the last story." She said.

Everyone blinked then the fire rose another two feet and the people closest lost there marshmallows.

**My day started normal. **

"And it won't be by the end." Nico finish.

Everyone had to agree knowing Percy.

**Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep. See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Man-hattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.**

"Sounds like my kind of school." Leo grinned.

The Athena cabin looked appalled.

Annabeth was unfazed because she was there. . .

**That's all cool with me. I mean, I'm ADHD and dyslexic, ****like most halfbloods, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out. The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always ... well, bright.**

"Well that's obvious." An Athena camper said.

**Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, **

( I had to read that book and it creeped me out)

**where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho. So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen. What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game.**

"Boys." Thalia said rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" Most of the boys said.

** The school bully, Matt Sloan, led most of those activities.**

Annabeth made a face remembering him.

**Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was.**

"All bullies do." Katie said.

** He had eyes like a pit bull, and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about his family's money. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.**

"Wow." Connor said," He's an idiot."

Everyone stared at him.

Connor continued," If you don't want to get caught don't crash it!"

Everyone sighed.

Chiron raised an eyebrow at Connor.

Connor's eyes widened," Not like I would know."

Travis shook his head beside him.

**Anyway, Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.**

Everyone smiled.

"Tyson's a cutey." A camper said somewhere to the left.

"Who's Tyson?" Jason asked.

"Percy's cyclops brother," Annabeth said nonchalantly.

Jason's eyes widened.

In the background if you looked you see Grover's eyes turning into sacred goat eyes.

**Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as my mom and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he was so ... different. **

"Well that's true." Nico said slowly.

**He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman,**

Everyone chuckled.

** but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection. **

"Poor guy." Piper said.

**His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn't tell you what color his eyes were, because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth.**

"No wonder he didn't know." Annabeth said.

Everyone gave her a curious look.

** His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid—I guess because he'd never gone to schoo****l before coming to Meriwether.**

"Because he was still considered five or something back then." Nico said.

** He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like a New York City alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box off 72nd Street.**

"Poor guy." Was heard around the crowd.

**Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson. Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him. I was pretty much his only friend, which meant he was my only friend.**

"Percy's a good friend." Annabeth said sadly.

Everyone looked how the missed him.

**My mom had complained to the school a million times that they weren't doing enough to help him. She'd called social services, but nothing ever seemed to happen. The social workers claimed Tyson didn't exist. They swore up and down that they'd visited the alley we described and couldn't find him, though how you miss a giant kid living in a refrigerator box, I don't know.**

"The Mist." Thalia said helpfully to the book.

"You know you're talking to a book right?" Nico said to her.

"Shut it death breath."

**Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, and Tyson panicked. He swatted Sloan away a little too hard. Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.**

"Go Tyson!" Travis cheered.

Everyone did the same.

**"You freak!" Sloan yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!" Tyson started sobbing. He sat down on the jungle gym so hard he bent the bar, and buried his head in his hands.**

"Wow." Leo said eyes wide.

**"Take it back, Sloan!" I shouted.**

"Theres Percy's loyalty." Thalia said.

**Sloan just sneered at me. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have friends if you weren't always stick-ing up for that freak."**

Some clenched their fists.

**I balled my fists. I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt.**

"Probably was." Annabeth said mysteriously.

** "He's not a freak. He's just..."**

**I tried to think of the right thing to say, but Sloan wasn't listening. He and his big ugly friends were too busy laughing. **

"I hate bullies." Jason said.

"That's a thing you have in common with Percy," Thalia told her brother.

**I wondered if it were my imagination, or if Sloan had more goons hanging around him than usual. I was used to seeing him with two or three, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before.**

"Monsters?" A camper asked.

"Knowing Percy, yes." Grover said.

**"Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called. "You are so dead."**

"Is that foreshadowing?" Connor asked but kept glancing at Chiron.

"Well he's alive. . . " Annabeth said but stopped.

How would she know if he was?

**When first period ended, our English teacher, Mr. de Milo, came outside to inspect the carnage. He pronounced that we'd understood Lord of the Flies perfectly. We all passed his course, and we should never, never grow up to be violent people.**

Everyone snorted.

**Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, then gave me a chip-toothed grin.**

"Looks like that lesson didn't settle in is head." Leo said.

**I had to promise to buy Tyson an extra peanut butter sandwich at lunch to get him to stop sobbing.**

**"I ... I am a freak?" he asked me.**

Everyone looked down.

Some thought guiltily about how they teased Percy and Tyson.

**"No," I promised, gritting my teeth. "Matt Sloan is the freak."**

**Tyson sniffled. "You are a good friend. Miss you next year if ... if I can't ..."**

**His voice trembled. I realized he didn't know if he'd be invited back next year for the community service project. I wondered if the headmaster had even bothered talking to him about it.**

"That's sad." Piper said.

Annabeth looked at her," Well he's fine now."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked looking curious.

"He's a general for Poseidon's army." Annabeth said nonchalantly.

Piper's jaw dropped.

Some chuckled at her expression.

**"Don't worry, big guy," I managed. "Everything's going to be fine." Tyson gave me such a grateful look I felt like a big liar. How could I promise a kid like him that anything would be fine?**

Everyone looked down.

**Our next exam was science. Mrs. Tesla **

Malcolm started laughing.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Tesla like in tesla coil? Get it?"

Everyone stared at him blankly except for the Athena cabin who laughed.

**told us that we had to mix chemicals until we succeeded in making something explode, **

The Hermes cabin grinned.

"No." Chiron said not even looking at them.

The cabin groaned.

**Tyson was my lab partner. His hands were way too big for the tiny vials we were supposed to use. He accidentally knocked a tray of chemicals off the counter and made an orange mushroom cloud in the trash can.**

"Well that was easy." Nico laughed.

**After Mrs. Tesla evacuated the lab and called the hazardous waste removal squad, she praised Tyson and me for being natural chemists. We were the first ones who'd ever aced her exam in under thirty seconds.**

Thalia gasped," That's the first time he got a good grade."

Annabeth smiled sadly shaking her head.

Everyone laughed.

_I hope my friends back in camp Jupiter don't talk about me like that_ Jason thought.

**I was glad the morning went fast, because it kept me from thinking too much about my problems. I couldn't stand the idea that something might be wrong at camp.**

Thalia looked at the floor.

**Even worse, I couldn't shake the memory of my bad dream. I had a terrible feeling that Grover was in danger.**

Grover nodded then shivered.

**In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, **

"When he's in the water he doesn't need maps." Annabeth informed.

"What do you mean?" Leo asked.

"When he's in the ocean he had perfect bearings." Annabeth explained.

"Cool!" Leo said.

**I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside—my friend Annabeth **

"Awwww!" The Aphrodite cabin squealed and cooed.

Annabeth blushed.

"He had you picture in his notebook!" Lacy squealed.

The crowd snickered.

**on vacation in Washington, D.C. She was wearing jeans and a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back in a bandanna. She was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with her arms crossed, looking extremely pleased with herself, like she'd personally designed the place. See, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up, so she's always visiting famous monuments and stuff.**

"And stuff?" Annabeth asked raising an eyebrow.

**She's weird that way.**

Annabeth glared at Travis when he burst out laughing.

** She'd e-mailed me the picture after spring break, and every once in a while I'd look at it just to remind myself she was real and Camp Half- Blood hadn't just been my imagination.**

The demigods nodded.

They all felt the same when they found out.

**I wished Annabeth were here. She'd know what to make of my dream. I'd never admit it to her, but she was smarter than me, **

Annabeth grinned.

**even if she was annoying sometimes.**

Connor snickered.

Annabeth's grin fell and she glared at the book like it was her lost boyfriend.

**I was about to close my notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.**

"Rude." A camper said.

Everyone agreed.

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**Sloan checked out the picture and his eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is not your—"**

"Yep she is." Nico said grinning.

Annabeth blushed," We weren't -"

"Together then. We know." Thalia finished.

"It was so obvious that you liked each other." Katie said.

Annabeth blushed even redder.

**"Give it back!" My ears felt hot.**

The snickered.

Chiron smiled.

**Sloan handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. **

Annabeth didn't know what to think feel about that.

**They were new kids who must've been visiting, because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humor, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that.**

"Hint number two." Nico said.

"Well I guess the last one could be a name." Annabeth said.

**"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to scare me.**

Everyone snorted.

**"I bet they can pay the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend."**

Everyone glared at the book with hate.

**"He's not retarded." I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan in the face.**

"Do it!" Clarisse yelled.

The crowd turned to her at once.

She sneered and Chris blinked.

**"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."**

"More like he's do that to you." Thalia said angrily.

**His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.**

"Awww." The Ares cabin complained.

Chiron gave them a stern look.

**Still, part of me thought, if Sloan only knew who I really was ...**

"He would wet his pants." Leo said.

Everyone laughed.

**The bell rang.**

**As Tyson and I were leaving class, a girl's voice whispered, "Percy!"**

Travis and Connor wiggled their eyebrows teasingly at Annabeth.

Annabeth blushed but for a totally different reason.

**I looked around the locker area, but nobody was paying me any attention. Like any girl at Meriwether would ever be caught dead calling my name.**

"Why? He's hot." Drew said.

Annabeth glared at her.

**Before I had time to consider whether or not I'd been imagining things, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Tyson and me along with them. It was time for PE. Our coach had promised us a free-for-all dodgeball game, and Matt Sloan had promised to kill me.**

"Well. . . this should be fun." Chris said.

**The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts. Fortunately, we did most of our athletic stuff inside, so we didn't have to jog through Tribeca looking like a bunch of boot-camp hippie children.**

Everyone cracked up.

"I wish I saw Percy looking like that." Nico snickered.

**I changed as quickly as I could in the locker room because I didn't want to deal with Sloan. I was about to leave when Tyson called, "Percy?"**

Some raised their eyebrows.

**He hadn't changed yet. He was standing by the weight room door, clutching his gym clothes.**

**"Will you ... uh ..."**

**"Oh. Yeah." I tried not to sound aggravated about it. "Yeah, sure, man."**

"What are they talking about?" Piper asked curiously.

Annabeth shrugged.

She came through the girls locker room not wanting to see. . . yeah.

She had a close encounter that morning and decided not the risk it.

**Tyson ducked inside the weight room. I stood guard outside the door while he changed. I felt kind of awkward doing this, but he asked me to most days. I think it's because he's completely hairy and he's got weird scars on his back that I've never had the courage to ask him about.**

A lot of people winced.

"Poor guy." Piper said.

Annabeth looked angry.

**Anyway, I'd learned the hard way that if people teased Tyson while he was dressing out, he'd get upset and start ripping the doors off lockers.**

"Wow." Leo said eyes wide.

**When we got into the gym, Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading sports Illustrated. Nunley was about a million years old ****with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair.**

The Aphrodite crinkled their noses.

Drew did it especially.

( I the person that doesn't get mad or annoyed very often but when I read about drew in the last hero she drove me nuts.)

** He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half- Blood—which was a shriveled-up mummy—except Coach Nunley moved a lot less and he never billowed green smoke. Well, at least not that I'd observed.**

Everyone snorted though some shivered.

That thing was creepy.

**Matt Sloan said, "Coach, can I be captain?"**

**"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."**

"Woooow." Travis said shaking his head.

**Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made me the other team's captain, but it didn't matter who I picked, because all the jocks and the popular kid moved over to Sloan's side. So did the big group of visitors.**

"That means he's probably going against a lot a of monsters. "Nico said.

"Thanks for reminding us death breath." Thalia said.

Nico pouted.

**On my side I had Tyson, Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj Mandali the calculus whiz, and a half dozen other kids who always got harassed by Sloan and his gang.**

"So all the losers." A Ares camper said.

Everyone gave him a nasty looking.

He just snorted.

** Normally I would've been okay with just Tyson—he was worth half a team all by himself—but the visitors on Sloan's team were almost as tall and strong-looking as Tyson, and there were six of them.**

"Well. . . that sucks." Leo summed up.

Everyone nodded.

**Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.**

**"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."**

"Hint. . . three?" Nico said.

"I think so." Annabeth said.

**I looked at him. "What smells funny?" Because I didn't figure he was talking about himself.**

Everyone chuckled.

**"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."**

"Again he would get it by now." Connor said.

"Percy's observant but sometimes. . . " Annabeth think of what to say.

**The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.**

"Or Canada." Annabeth said.

The people who heard looked at her curiously.

**Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit. **

Everyone laughed.

**Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of my team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.**

"And they will be the one's who get hit first." Travis said wisely.

Everyone stared at him.

Beside him Connor nodded in agreement with his brother.

**"Tyson," I said. "Let's g—"**

**A ball slammed into my gut. I sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor.**

"Ohhhhhh." Nico grimaced.

The crowd winced in sympathy.

**The other team exploded in laughter.**

"Jerks." Katie said.

**My eyesight was fuzzy. I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. I couldn't believe any-body could throw that hard. Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"**

"Here come's another one!" A camper yelled.

**I rolled as another dodgeball whistled past my ear at the speed of sound.**

**Whooom!**

Some campers gulped.

Some eyes went wide.

Some didn't know what to think.

Some snored. ( I think you knew who they are . . . )

**It hit the wall mat, and Corey Bailer yelped.**

"Bet that hurt." Chris said.

**"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill some-body!"**

"That's probably what there trying to do." Annabeth said.

**The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now ... even taller than Tyson. His biceps bulged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"**

"It's confirmed, monsters." Travis said.

**The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Nobody called me Perseus except those who knew my true identity. Friends ... and enemies. What had Tyson said? They smell funny.**

**Monsters.**

"Finally." Thalia said exasperated.

"Man he's so slow." Clarisse said.

"He got it eventually." Annabeth defined her boyfriend.

**All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.**

Some people looked at the Ares campers looking for what they didn't know.

One camper pulled down the sleeve on his arm.

Everyone raised an eyebrow.

**Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who ..." **

Leo snorted," Of course they aren't."

**The other kids on his team started screaming and back-ing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic. Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.**

"I wonder what they saw." Piper said.

Annabeth shrugged," Could be anything."

**"Let them go!" I yelled at the giants.**

**The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said: JB luvs Babycakes. "And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"**

"Oh." A camper said to Annabeth," I get why you said Canada."

Then," Wait how did you know?"

Annabeth blushed but didn't say anything.

**He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like wiffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.**

"I coud pick those up." Leo said.

Nyssa shook her head at Leo.

**"Coach!" I yelled.**

**Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on. **

Travis snorted," Well that's _really_ helpful."

**That's the problem with mortals. A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand. Maybe the coach saw a few eighth graders pounding the younger kids like usual. Maybe the other kids saw Matt Sloan's thugs getting ready to toss Molotov cock-tails around. (It wouldn't have been the first time.)**

"What?" Jason asked eyes wide.

"I don't even want to know." Thalia said.

** At any rate, I was pretty sure nobody else realized we were dealing with genuine man-eating bloodthirsty monsters.**

"Stupid Mist." A camper said from the back the group.

**"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice." And he went back to his magazine.**

Everyone shook their heads.

**The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. I dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past my shoulder.**

**"Corey!" I screamed.**

Everyone leaned forward.

They wanted to see what was going t happen next.

**Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.**

"Whoa!" Leo said grinning.

**"Run!" I told my teammates. "The other exit!"**

**They ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.**

"This is getting interesting." An Ares camper grinned.

**"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"**

"I think they are too into that name." Nico said.

**He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.**

**I reached for Riptide, which I always kept in my pocket, but then I realized I was wearing gym shorts. **

The crowd groaned.

"That's not good." Jason said.

**I had no pockets. Riptide was tucked in my jeans inside my gym locker. And the locker room door was sealed. I was completely defenseless.**

Some looked around desperately like the answer to the problem was in the air.

"This is really bad." Piper said.

"How did he survive?" Jason asked.

Nobody noticed Annabeth's red face.

**Another fireball came streaking toward me. Tyson pushed me out of the way, but the explosion still blew me head over heels. I found myself sprawled on the gym floor, dazed from smoke, my tie-dyed T-shirt peppered with sizzling holes. Just across the center line, two hungry giants were glaring down at me.**

Everyone leaned even further.

**"Flesh!" they bellowed. "Hero flesh for lunch!" They both took aim.**

**"Percy needs help!" Tyson yelled, and he jumped in front of me just as they threw their balls.**

Everyone's eyes widened.

**"Tyson!" I screamed, but it was too late.**

**Both balls slammed into him ... but no ... he'd caught them.**

Some of the newer campers gapped while the other's cheered.

** Somehow Tyson, who was so clumsy he knocked over lab equipment and broke playground structures on a regular basis, had caught two fiery metal balls speeding toward him at a zillion miles an hour. He sent them hurtling back toward their surprised owners, who screamed, "BAAAAAD!" as the bronze spheres exploded against their chests.**

Everyone laughed.

"You got to love Tyson." Travis grinned.

Everyone agreed. . .

. . . though some were still gaping like fish out of water. . . .

**The giants disintegrated in twin columns of flame—a sure sign they were monsters, all right.**

**Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.**

"That's really annoying sometimes." Connor said.

"Especially now." A camper said.

Everyone stopped.

They were so into reading they forgot the dangers of the monsters coming back quickly.

**"My brothers!" Joe Bob the Cannibal wailed. He flexed his muscles and his Babycakes tattoo rippled. "You will pay for their destruction!"**

"No you will!" A camper yelled.

**"Tyson!" I said. "Look out!"**

**Another comet hurtled toward us. Tyson just had time to swat it aside. It flew straight over Coach Nunley's head and landed in the bleachers with a huge KABOOM!**

"Did he notice?" Travis asked.

Nobody answered.

**Kids were running around screaming, trying to avoid the sizzling craters in the floor. Others were banging on the door, calling for help. Sloan himself stood petrified in the middle of the court, watching in disbelief as balls of death flew around him.**

"Idiot." Clarisse said.

**Coach Nunley still wasn't seeing anything. **

"That answers my question. "Travis said.

The campers looked at the book in disbelief.

**He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interfer-ence, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.**

"Wow." Leo said.

**Surely the whole school could hear the noise. The head-master, the police, somebody would come help us.**

"With Percy's luck not until it's over." Nico said.

**"Victory will be ours!" roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"**

"Ew!" An Camper said.

Everyone turned to her.

She blushed red.

**I wanted to tell him he was taking the dodgeball game way too seriously,**

Nico blushed.

Thalia laughed," You think like kelp head."

Nico blushed harder.

** but before I could, he hefted another ball. The other three giants followed his lead. I knew we were dead. Tyson couldn't deflect all those balls at once. His hands had to be seriously burned from blocking the first volley. Without my sword ...**

**I had a crazy idea.**

Everyone groaned.

"His ideas are so stupid." Annabeth said.

"But they always seem to work." Nico finished.

He cheeks were still a little pink.

**I ran toward the locker room.**

Some raised their eyebrows.

**"Move!" I told my teammates. "Away from the door."**

"Oh!" The Athena cabin said at the same time.

They got it.

**Explosions behind me. Tyson had batted two of the balls back toward their owners and blasted them to ashes.**

Everyone cheered.

**That left two giants still standing. A third ball hurtled straight at me. I forced myself to wait—one Mississippi, two Mississippi—then dove aside as the fiery sphere demolished the locker room door.**

Everyone stared at the book.

**Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms**

The Aphrodite cabin gaged.

** was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge**

**WHOOOOOOOM!**

"And . . . . it exploded." Travis said dramatically.

Katie rolled her eyes.

**The wall blew apart. Locker doors, socks, athletic sup-porters, and other various nasty personal belongings rained all over the gym. **

Some of the immature boys snickered.

You know who they are.

**I turned just in time to see Tyson punch Skull Eater in the face. The giant crumpled. But the last giant, Joe Bob, had wisely held on to his own ball, waiting for an opportunity. He threw just as Tyson was turning to face him.**

Everyone leaned forward. . . .

**"No!" I yelled.**

**The ball caught Tyson square in the chest. He slid the length of the court and slammed into the back wall, which cracked and partially crumbled on top of him, making a hole right onto Church Street. I didn't see how Tyson could still be alive, but he only looked dazed. The bronze ball was smoking at his feet. Tyson tried to pick it up, but he fell back, stunned, into a pile of cinder blocks.**

"Strong kid." Leo said in amazement.

"Well he is a cyclops." Piper said.

**"Well!" Joe Bob gloated. "I'm the last one standing! I'll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"**

**He picked up another ball and aimed it at Tyson.**

**"Stop!" I yelled. "It's me you want!"**

"And here he goes being the hero." Thalia sighed.

**The giant grinned. "You wish to die first, young hero?"**

"No." Annabeth glared at the book.

**I had to do something. Riptide had to be around here somewhere. Then I spotted my jeans in a smoking heap of clothes right by the giant's feet. If I could only get there... I knew it was hopeless, but I charged.**

"How did he live again? "Jason asked.

Annabeth looked anywhere but the book.

**The giant laughed. "My lunch approaches." He raised his arm to throw. I braced myself to die. Suddenly the giant's body went rigid.**

"Huh?" Was heard around the crowd.

** His expression changed from gloating to surprise. Right where his belly button should've been, his T-shirt ripped open and he grew something like a horn—no, not a horn—the glowing tip of a blade.**

Some raised their eyebrows.

"Where did that come from? "Grover asked innocently.

Annabeth glared at him.

**The ball dropped out of his hand. The monster stared down at the knife that had just run him through from behind.**

**He muttered, "Ow,"**

Everyone laughed.

** and burst into a cloud of green flame, which I figured was going to make Babycakes pretty upset.**

"He thinks about that?" Jason asked.

"That's Percy for you." Thalia said.

**Standing in the smoke was my friend Annabeth.**

Everyone turned to her but she had a neutral face set.

** Her face was grimy and scratched. She had a ragged backpack slung over her shoulder, her baseball cap tucked in her pocket, a bronze knife in her hand, and a wild look in her storm-gray eyes, like she'd just been chased a thousand miles by ghosts.**

Now some looked worried.

Still Annabeth said nothing.

**Matt Sloan, who'd been standing there dumbfounded the whole time, finally came to his senses. He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture.**

Some snickered.

**"That's the girl ... That's the girl—"**

**Annabeth punched him in the nose and knocked him flat. "And you," she told him, "lay off my friend."**

Everyone cheered.

"Go Annabeth!" Connor cheered.

**The gym was in flames. Kids were still running around screaming. I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom. Through the glass windows of the exit doors, I could see the headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, wres-tling with the lock, a crowd of teachers piling up behind him.**

"See?" Nico said referring to what he said earlier.

**"Annabeth ..." I stammered. "How did you ... how long have you ..."**

Annabeth smiled.

**"Pretty much all morning." She sheathed her bronze knife. "I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone."**

**"The shadow I saw this morning—that was—" My face felt hot. "Oh my gods, you were looking in my bed-room window?"**

Everyone turned to her.

Her face was as red as a tomato.

All was silent then. . .

. . .everyone cracked.

Annabeth blushed even harder.

**"There's no time to explain!" she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. "I just didn't want to—"**

**"There!" a woman screamed. The doors burst open and the adults came pouring in.**

"Let me guess. They'll blame it on Percy." Thalia said.

**"Meet me outside," Annabeth told me. "And him." She pointed to Tyson, who was still sitting dazed against the wall. Annabeth gave him a look of distaste that I didn't quite understand.**

People gave her a curious gaze.

Annabeth grimaced.

She was so mean to him.

**"You'd better bring him."**

**"What?"**

**"No time!" she said. "Hurry!"**

**She put on her Yankees baseball cap, which was a magic gift from her mom, and instantly vanished.**

"Well that helps a lot." Nico said sarcastically.

Annabeth glared at him.

**That left me standing alone in the middle of the burning gymnasium when the headmaster came charging in with half the faculty and a couple of police officers.**

**"Percy Jackson?" Mr. Bonsai said. "What ... how ..."**

Thalia raised an eyebrow at everyone.

**Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. "Head hurts."**

Some winced.

**Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. "Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!"**

"WEll that's just great." Nico said.

Thalia looked smug.

**Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck—he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. "Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm."**

**The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth.**

"That's one of the worst things about the Mist." Travis said sadly.

**I grabbed Riptide out of my ruined jeans, told Tyson, "Come on!" and jumped hrough the gaping hole in the side of the building.**

"Nice exit." Leo grinned.

"That's it. "Connor said.

"Can I read the next one?" Harley asked.

Connor shrugged an handed over the book.

* * *

**Hope you liked it **

**I'll update soon**

**please review**

**see you**


	11. Birds

**Hope you like it**

**sorry it took so long. Two words, Final exams.**

**Okay thanks to everyone that reviewed**

**PLEASE READ THE NEXT PART IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT! ( IM NOT KIDING)**

**okay here's the main points :**

** 1) I'm sorry but I'm putting this story on hold for a while so I can get farther with my 'sent back in time again' series. ****After about halfway through the lost hero or when I finish it I'll start typing for this story again. ****Sorry if this was inconvenient but I just want to get the lost hero over with then it will get fun to write sent back in time. ****Sorry again but it's better this way. ****Promise that I will update when I have reached the lost Hero goal.**

**2) I got some requests for doing the hero's of Olympus short stories from the books but I don't want to do that. There learning about Percy before all this Giant war thing was happening. Plus they find out anyway from the certain person. ****So all the short stories are from the first series, then after that it's done and it won't be going on. ****Sorry if you wanted that but it would be going against the whole story idea.**

**Enjoy anyway**

** 3) ****Oh and The House of Hades cover came out if you didn't know that.**

**4)I put up a new poll so please vote.**

**5) Last but defiantly not least. . . This chapter is dedicated to the start of summer vacation! I'll be updating more from now on =) so I should be back to this story soon.**

**Just thought I would tell you ; )**

* * *

Harley opened to the next page," Note says,

_Here's a certain . . . chariot race._

_The mysterious Apollo_

"Okay." Some campers said looking at the note weirdly.

"Okay I'll start," Harley called to everyone.

**Birds**

Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows.

The Athena cabin did the same.

They had there suspicions.

**In my dream, Grover was wearing a wedding dress.**

(Sorry if you wanted the full chapter But I wanted to start it there. Also it just seemed like a thing Apollo would do.)

Everyone cracked up.

Grover blushed a deep scarlet.

"So Grover, who are you marrying?" Travis asked innocently.

"Nobody!" Grover said loudly.

Clarisse and Annabeth started laughing.

"No not that nobody!" Grover cried.

His face was getting redder by the minute.

"Wait until we tell Juniper." Thalia said grinning.

Grover put his head in his hands.

**It didn't fit him very well. The gown was too long and the hem was caked with dried mud.**

The Aphrodite cabin looked scandalous at a mention of a ruined dress.

**The neckline kept falling off his shoulders. A tattered veil covered his face.**

"This is the saddest wedding I ever." Nico said.

"I'm not getting married!" Grover cried out.

Everyone snickered.

"Wait, how would you know that Nico?" Thalia asked.

Nico blushed but didn't say anything in answer.

**He was standing in a dank cave, lit only by torches. There was a cot in one corner and an old-fashioned loom in the other, a length of white cloth half woven on the frame. And he was staring right at me, like I was a TV pro-gram he'd been waiting for.**

"Oh so that's when you started the empathy link." Annabeth said thoughtfully.

Grover nodded but his face was still a deep shade of red.

**"Thank the gods!" he yelped. "Can you hear me?"**

"It would seem." Leo said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**My dream-self was slow to respond.**

"His real self would have been too." Thalia joked.

Jason glanced around at all the laughing faces.

_If I was missing . . . well I am missing, I wouldn't want them to insult me, _Jason thought.

**I was still looking around, taking in the stalactite ceiling, the stench of sheep**

"What does that smell like? "Connor asked curiously.

"Oh you don't want to know." Annabeth said.

**and goats, the growling and grumbling and bleating sounds that seemed to echo from behind a refrigerator-sized boulder, which was blocking the room's only exit, as if there were a much larger cavern beyond it.**

"There was." Grover admitted to the crowd.

"He is observant isn't he?" Piper commented.

"Yeah he just doesn't use it." Annabeth said.

Then she smiled wistfully.

**"Percy?" Grover said. "Please, I don't have the strength to project any better. You have to hear me!"**

"Project?" Leo asked intrigued.

_Hmmm. . . , _Leo thought_. _

**"I hear you," I said. "Grover, what's going on?"**

"That's what I would like to know." Many of the new campers shouted.

Though some of the older one's did too.

**From behind the boulder, a monstrous voice yelled, "Honeypie! Are you done yet?"**

"Honey pie?" Came the question from most of the crowd.

Grover tumbled.

**Grover flinched. He called out in falsetto, "Not quite, dearest! A few more days!"**

**Everyone tried not to snicker.**

"A few more days?" Malcolm said thinking of what that could mean.

Little did he know that the rest of the Athena cabins were thinking along the same lines.

**"Bah! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"**

**"N-no, dearest. Just five days. That leaves twelve more to go."**

"Okay I'm not good at math but that doesn't seem right." Travis said.

Everyone gave him a look.

"No duh!"

**The monster was silent, maybe trying to do the math. He must've been worse at arithmetic than I was, because he said, "All right, but hurry! **

"Really!" Came the reply from the crowd.

"Man he's dump." Connor said.

**I want to SEEEEE under that veil, heh-heh-heh."**

"Well that's inappropriate." The Stolls snickered.

Katie whacked both of the upside the head.

"OW!"

**Grover turned back to me. "You have to help me! No time! I'm stuck in this cave. On an island in the sea."**

"Well that's really helpful." Clarisse said rolling her eyes.

Grover blushed.

**"Where?"**

**"I don't know exactly! I went to Florida and turned left."**

"Wow. "Many people said sarcastically.

"I was panicking!" Grover admitted.

**"What? How did you—"**

**"It's a trap!" Grover said. **

"I mean of course it's a trap." Travis said.

Katie rolled her eyes.

**"It's the reason no satyr has ever returned from this quest. He's a shepherd, Percy! And he has it. Its nature magic is so powerful it smells just like the great god Pan! The satyrs come here thinking they've found Pan, and they get trapped and eaten by Polyphemus!"**

"A Cyclops!" The Athena cabin yelled in unison.

"Well that's not good." A camper yelled from the back.

"So that's where you guys found it." Thalia said.

Annabeth nodded.

"Found what?" Leo asked.

"You'll see."

Leo groaned.

**"Poly-who?"**

**"The Cyclops!" Grover said, exasperated. "I almost got away. I made it all the way to St.** **Augustine."**

"Oh." Annabeth said.

Everyone looked at her.

Nobody knew what she was talking about.

**"But he followed you," I said, remembering my first dream. **

"What dream?" Leo asked.

"We didn't read about it but according to Percy he saw Grover running away from something and his in a bridal boutique, the thing that was following him, the Cyclops, yelled MINE!" Annabeth said.

"Oh that helps." Leo said.

Some other campers nodded in agreement.

**"And trapped you in a bridal boutique."**

Some campers snickered.

**"That's right," Grover said. "My first empathy link must've worked then.**

"What's an empathy link?" A newer camper asked.

"It's when a Satyr links his emotions with a person." Annabeth said.

(I just made that up.)

**Look, this bridal dress is the only thing keeping me alive. He thinks I smell good, but I told him it was just goat-scented perfume. **

The Aphrodite cabin crinkled their perfect noses.

**Thank goodness he can't see very well. His eye is still half blind from the last time somebody poked it out. But soon he'll realize what I am. **

"Who was he or she?" Piper asked.

"Oh you know just nobody." Annabeth said.

Grover and Clarisse actually laughed.

Everyone stared at Clarisse.

"What? I can laugh to." Clarisse said glaring.

Everyone's eye widened but nobody said a word.

**He's only giving me two weeks to finish the bridal train, and he's getting impatient!"**

"That's not helping anything." Connor said.

**"Wait a minute. This Cyclops thinks you're—"**

**"Yes!" Grover wailed. "He thinks I'm a lady Cyclops and he wants to marry me!"**

Everyone tried to hold it in but it was just too tempting.

They all stared cracking up.

Grover bleated, his face going red.

**Under different circumstances, I might've busted out laughing, but Grover's voice was deadly serious. He was shaking with fear.**

Everyone abruptly stopped and became serious.

Yes, even the Stolls and Leo . . . well a little they were just snickering now.

**"I'll come rescue you," I promised. "Where are you?"**

Everyone leaned forward.

**"The Sea of Monsters, of course!"**

All the new campers gasped.

Same just looked confused.

**"The sea of what?"**

"Really Seaweed brain?" Annabeth said but you could see her smile.

She really missed that dope.

**"I told you! I don't know exactly where! And look, Percy ... urn, I'm really sorry about this, but this empathy link ... well, I had no choice. Our emotions are connected now. If I die ..."**

"He dies too." Connor said.

"Well. . . "Annabeth stared but little Harley stared reading faster and louder to drown her out.

Annabeth humped.

**"Don't tell me, I'll die too."**

Connor's eyes went wide and he exclaimed," I think like Percy!"

Nobody knew if he was happy about that or not.

**"Oh, well, perhaps not. You might live for years in a vegetative state. But, uh, it would be a lot better if you got me out of here."**

"Yes it would," Agreed a random camper.

"Witch is worse?" Thalia asked.

Everyone looked at Nico.

"What?" Nico asked noticing everyone's look for the first time. He was looking at Leo who was building a little robot at looked about ready to explode.

"Oh nothing."

**"Honeypie!" the monster bellowed. "Dinnertime! Yummy yummy sheep meat!"**

Piper looked grossed out.

(Remember she's a vegetarian?)

**Grover whimpered. "I have to go. Hurry!"**

**"Wait! You said 'it' was here. What?"**

Everyone looked at Annabeth but she wouldn't talk.

Everyone groaned.

Annabeth grinned.

**But Grover's voice was already growing fainter. "Sweet dreams. Don't let me die!"**

"How can you sleep with that parting sentence?" Piper asked.

Grover blushed," Opps."

**The dream faded and I woke with a start. **

"See." Piper said," He couldn't sleep."

**It was early morning. Tyson was staring down at me, his one big brown eye full of concern.**

People all around grinned and smiled.

The Aphrodite cabin cooed.

**"Are you okay?" he asked.**

**His voice sent a chill down my back, because he sounded almost exactly like the monster I'd heard in my dream.**

Grover winced.

"Poor Percy." Piper said.

**The morning of the race was hot and humid. Fog lay low on the ground like sauna steam.**

"I never thought of the fog like that before." Travis said in thought.

"I do 't think anyone thought about it like that." Katie said rolling her eyes.

Will blushed and he hoped nobody noticed.

**Millions of birds were roosting in the trees**

"Birds. . . .that should be important." Leo said.

And it is. . .

**—fat gray-and-white pigeons, except they didn't coo like regular pigeons. **

Some of the campers, who weren't there when this event happened, raised an eyebrow.

**They made this annoying metallic screeching sound that reminded me of submarine radar.**

"Again he makes references to the ocean." Thalia smiled.

She wouldn't admit it to anyone but she missed kelp head.

. . . don't tell her I said that.

Gulp.

**The racetrack had been built in a grassy field between the archery range and the woods.**

**Hephaestus's cabin had used the bronze bulls, **

The Hephaestus cabin cheered at the mention of their cabin.

**which were completely tame since they'd had their heads smashed in, to plow an oval track in a matter of minutes.**

"That was a good idea." Malcom said dreamily.

**There were rows of stone steps for the spectators— Tantalus,**

Everyone made a face.

"Oh so it's _that_ race. "Travis said.

Everyone grimaced.

Others looked confused.

** the satyrs, a few dryads, and all of the campers who weren't participating. Mr. D didn't show. He never got up before ten o'clock.**

The campers rolled their eyes.

"That's Mr. D for you." Will said.

Thunder rumbled.

Will's eyes went wide.

**"Right!" Tantalus announced as the teams began to assemble. ****A naiad had brought him a big platter of pastries, and as Tantalus spoke, his right hand chased a chocolate eclair across the judge's table. **

"You know it was fun to watch him chase food." Travis said.

Some gave him a look while others grinned.

**"You all know the rules. A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed. Dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!"**

"That'll be good." Jason said.

"Well it did happen before. . . " An Apollo camper trailed off.

The older campers grimaced.

** Tantalus smiled at us like we were all naughty children. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week! **

"That's harsh punishment?" Jason asked disbelieveingly.

"What's a harsh punishment than?" Travis asked.

"Being dropped into a lake inside a bag full of weasels." Jason said.

Everyone gave him wide-eyed looks.

**Now ready your chariots!"**

Everyone leaned forward.

**Beckendorf led the Hephaestus team onto the track. **

Everyone looked down, sad.

The Hephaestus cabin looked the most sad out of the whole group.

Leo closed his eyes.

**They had a sweet ride made of bronze and iron—even the horses, which were magical automatons like the Colchis bulls. I had no doubt that their chariot had all kinds of mechanical traps and more fancy options than a fully loaded Maserati.**

The Hephaestus cabin smiled at that.

Leo opened his eyes.

"Beckendorf was good at making those. . . " Nyssa trailed off.

Everyone was thinking the same thing, _Was._

**The Ares chariot was bloodred, and pulled by two grisly horse skeletons.**

Nico didn't know if he liked that or not.

** Clarisse climbed aboard with a batch of javelins, spiked balls, caltrops, and a bunch of other nasty toys.**

"Toys?" A camper asked.

"That's Percy for you." Thalia said shaking her head.

Everyone smiled sadly.

How they wished he was there.

**Apollo's**

The Apollo cabin cheered.

** chariot was trim and graceful and completely gold, pulled by two beautiful palominos. Their fighter was armed with a bow, though he had promised not to shoot regular pointed arrows at the opposing drivers.**

The Ares cabin grumbled.

"The hunters are way better anyway." Thalia grinned.

The Apollo cabin began to protest.

"Quiet children. Continue Harley." Chiron said making peace.

Nobody noticed but Nico looked down when Thalia mentioned hunters.

And there was more than one reason for that.

**Hermes's**

The Hermes cabin cheered.

Travis and Connor high-fived.

** chariot was green and kind of old-looking, as if it hadn't been out of the garage in years.**

Travis suddenly whistled loudly.

** It didn't look like anything special, but it was manned by the Stoll brothers**

Said brother grinned so wide that the people who sat the closest to them scooted away stately.

**, and I shuddered to think what dirty tricks they'd schemed up.**

The brother's grinned even wider.

Everyone, now, gave them nervous looks.

**That left two chariots: one driven by Annabeth, and the other by me.**

**Annabeth smiled.**

"This should be interesting." Leo said.

"Oh it was." Clarisse said.

Leo eyed her silently.

**Before the race began, I tried to approach Annabeth and tell her about my dream.**

Travis leaned over to Connor," Bet you ten dollars it won't go right."

Connor grinned," Your on."

**She perked up when I mentioned Grover, but when I told her what he'd said, she seemed to get distant again, suspicious.**

Travis smiled.

"Good to know your suspicious." Grover said looking at Annabeth.

Annabeth smiled sheepishly.

**"You're trying to distract me," she decided.**

"That was very wise." Thalia teased the daughter of Athena.

"Shut up, Thalia."

**"What? No I'm not!"**

"Nope. He's not." Nico said matter-of-factly.

**"Oh, right! Like Grover would just happen to stumble across the one thing that could save the camp."**

"Oh the irony." A Camper called.

Some people laughed.

Annabeth made a face.

**"What do you mean?"**

"There's kelp head for you." Thalia said to Nico.

Nico nodded and Thalia turned away.

Nico, if you looked closely, had a slight tent of pink on his cheeks.

**She rolled her eyes. "Go back to your chariot, Percy."**

Travis grinned.

He was about to win a bet . . .

**"I'm not making this up. He's in trouble, Annabeth."**

"Sorry Grover." Annabeth said.

"It's okay, Annabeth." Grover said.

"I can't look at him without picturing him in a dress." A camper whispered.

Grover blushed.

Chiron didn't know if he should scold said camper or smile.

**She hesitated. I could tell she was trying to decide whether or not to trust me. Despite our occasional fights,**

"Occasional?" Nico asked raising an eyebrow.

"More like all the time." Thalia said.

Annabeth glared at them.

They just smiled sweetly at her.

On the son of Hades it was a sight to behold.

Some campers blinked in surprise.

** we'd been through a lot together. And I knew she would never want anything bad to happen to Grover.**

"Or any of his family." Thalia said.

"And his friends." Nico continued.

"Even enemies." Annabeth finished.

Jason stared at them.

Percy sounded like a sight t behold.

**"Percy, an empathy link is so hard to do. I mean, it's more likely you really were dreaming."**

"Or he wasn't. . . " Nico trailed off.

"Okay I get it." Annabeth said.

**"The Oracle," I said. "We could consult the Oracle."**

The older campers shivered.

That thing was creepy.

And they weren't thinking about Rachel.

**Annabeth frowned.**

Like she was now. . .

**Last summer, before my quest, I'd visited the strange spirit that lived in the Big House attic and it had given me a prophecy that came true in ways I'd never expected.**

"That's what's suppost to happen. You let the prophecy play itself out." An Athena camper said.

Leo couldn't help but thinking about the prophecy of seven.

_To storm or fire the world must fall . . . fire._

** The experience had freaked me out for months. Annabeth knew I'd never suggest going back there if I wasn't completely serious.**

Everyone nodded.

**Before she could answer, the conch horn sounded.**

Travis grinned but Connor did too.

**"Charioteers!" Tantalus called. "To your mark!"**

Everyone leaned in.

This should be interesting.

**"We'll talk later," Annabeth told me, "after I win."**

Travis turned to Connor," I win."

"No I do."

"No I do."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"NO!"

"Yes . . . dang it." Connor said.

Travis grinned and held out his hand.

Connor grinned back and place a wrapper in his hand.

Travis grinned, and without looking, put the paper in his hand his pocket.

Connor smirked.

**As I was walking back to my own chariot, I noticed how many more pigeons were in the trees now—**

Campers that were there grimaced.

_Why hadn't we noticed? _was thought by many.

**screeching like crazy, making the whole forest rustle. Nobody else seemed to be paying them much attention, but they made me nervous.**

"He does have good instincts." Annabeth said quietly to Thalia.

"Yeah, he just doesn't use them." Thalia said back.

Annabeth nodded in agreement.

** Their beaks glinted strangely. Their eyes seemed shinier than regular birds.**

The older campers sighed.

Lesson learned: Watch out for birds.

**Tyson was having trouble getting our horses under control. I had to talk to them a long time before they would settle down.**

"I still think it's cool how he can talk to horses." A camper said.

"I wish he was here." Annabeth muttered.

The horses did too.

They couldn't stop whining.

**He's a monster, lord! they complained to me.**

"Yes but a nice one." Leo said.

**He's a son of Poseidon, I told them. Just like ... well, just like me.**

"Just a little different." Thalia said.

"But they both have the same heart." Annabeth smiled.

**No! they insisted. Monster! Horse-eater! Not trusted!**

"I don't think Tyson would est them." Jason said.

The other campers nodded.

**I'll give you sugar cubes at the end of the race, I said.**

The Hermes cabin grinned.

**Sugar cubes?**

"Looks like that worked." Nico said.

**Very big sugar cubes. And apples. Did I mention the apples?**

Everyone smiled.

That was just like Percy.

**Finally they agreed to let me harness them.**

"Well if I was promised sugar cubes I would too." Travis said to Katie.

Katie rolled her eyes but she smiled at the joke.

Travis smiled.

Oh how he loved that smile. . . .

**Now, if you've never seen a Greek chariot, it's built for speed, not safety or comfort.**

Jason laughed," Ours aren't either."

Everyone gave him a curious looks.

(Remember Percy and Frank? )

** It's basically a wooden basket, open at the back, mounted on an axle between two wheels. The driver stands up the whole time,**

"Talk about foot massage." An Aphrodite camper said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

Piper sighed.

** and you can feel every bump in the road. The carriage is made of such light wood that if you wipe out making the hairpin turns at either end of the track, **

Travis and Connor grimaced.

They didn't even get the chance and it hurt a lot.

**you'll probably tip over and crush both the chariot and yourself. It's an even better rush than skateboarding.**

"You know I never seen him skateboard." Nico said.

"Well I never seen you either." Thalia said.

Nico blushed.

**I took the reins and maneuvered the chariot to the starting line. I gave Tyson a ten-foot pole and told him that his job was to push the other chariots away if they got too close, and to deflect anything they might try to throw at us.**

"Weird weapon to choose." A camper said from the back of the crowd.

**"No hitting ponies with the stick," he insisted.**

Everyone smiled.

Tyson was just so cute.

**"No," I agreed. "Or people, either, if you can help it. We're going to run a clean race. Just keep the distractions away and let me concentrate on driving."**

"That would be good."

Everyone looked around but didn't know who said that.

( I know who said that *smiled evilly*)

**"We will win.'" He beamed.**

The Aphrodite cabin cooed.

**We are so going to lose, I thought to myself, but I had to try.**

"He doesn't think much of himself does he? "Jason ask.d.

" Well he was at first." Annabeth said trailing off.

** I wanted to show the others ... ****well, I wasn't sure what, exactly. **

Some heads tilted.

**That Tyson wasn't such a bad guy? That I wasn't ashamed of being seen with him in public?**

"He was ashamed?" Leo asked confused.

A LOT of people looked down guilty.

** Maybe that they hadn't hurt me with all their jokes and name calling?**

Some bit their lips.

They were so meant to Tyson and Percy . . .

. . . and now neither was there.

Jason blinked.

He didn't understand.

**As the chariots lined up, more shiny-eyed pigeons gathered in the woods.**

"Those birds again." Leo said.

Some took a breath.

** They were screeching so loudly the campers in the stands were starting to take notice, glancing nervously at the trees, which shivered under the weight of the birds.**

"Is it me or are there more?" Piper asked.

The campers looked at each other.

They didn't know what to say.

** Tantalus didn't look concerned, but he did have to speak up to be heard over the noise.**

"Of course he wasn't. He was too busy chasing a donut." Connor said.

Everyone laughed.

"Remember when Percy told him to do that?" Travis asked.

Everyone nodded.

Leo couldn't wait to meet this guy.

**"Charioteers!" he shouted. "Attend your mark!"**

Everyone leaned forward.

**He waved his hand and the starting signal dropped. **

"Here we go!" A camper yelled excitedly.

**The chariots roared to life. Hooves thundered against the dirt. The crowd cheered.**

Everyone grinned.

Even the ones that knew what was going to happen next.

**Almost immediately there was a loud nasty crack! I looked back in time to see the Apollo chariot flip over. **

The Apollo cabin groaned.

Thalia smirked.

**The Hermes chariot had rammed into it—maybe by mistake, maybe not. **

"Mistake." Travis admitted.

"Ehh but it worked." Connor said.

**The riders were thrown free, but their panicked horses dragged the golden chariot diagonally across the track.**

"And there goes a team." Nico said.

** The Hermes team, Travis and Connor Stoll,**

Everyone glanced at Travis and Connor.

They both grinned.

** were laughing at their good luck, but not for long. **

"Well. . . it almost worked." Connor corrected sheepishly.

Everyone laughed.

**The Apollo horses crashed into theirs,**

"That's like instant karma." Piper said.

Everyone nodded.

The Stolls grumbled.

** and the Hermes chariot flipped too, leaving a pile of broken wood and four rearing horses in the dust.**

"That hurt." Travis commented.

**Two chariots down in the first twenty feet. **

"That has to be a record." Leo said.

"It's not." Malcom said.

Leo's eyes went wide.

**I loved this sport.**

"That's Percy for you." Annabeth grinned.

**I turned my attention back to the front. We were making good time, pulling ahead of Ares,**

The Ares cabin growled.

** but Annabeth's chariot was way ahead of us. She was already making her turn around the first post, her javelin man grinning and waving at us, shouting: "See ya!"**

"Well that's arrogant." Piper said.

**The Hephaestus chariot was starting to gain on us, too.**

Leo and his cabin cheered.

**Beckendorf pressed a button, and a panel slid open on the side of his chariot.**

The Hephaestus cabin grinned.

**"Sorry, Percy!" he yelled. ****Three sets of balls and chains shot straight toward our wheels.**

"Well that's not good." A camper said.

Everyone shhed him.

** They would've wrecked us completely if Tyson hadn't whacked them aside with a quick swipe of his pole.**

"Go Tyson!" The crowd cheered.

Chiron smiled.

** He gave the Hephaestus chariot a good shove and sent them skittering sideways while we pulled ahead.**

The cheering continued.

**"Nice work, Tyson!" I yelled.**

**"Birds!" he cried.**

Then, abruptly, the cheering stopped.

**"What?"**

**We were whipping along so fast it was hard to hear or see anything, but Tyson pointed toward the woods and I saw what he was worried about.**

"Birds." Annabeth said refuring to the title.

** The pigeons had risen from the trees. They were spiraling like a huge tornado, heading toward the track.**

"That's scary." Leo said.

**No big deal, I told myself. They're just pigeons.**

"Right, they are." An older camper grumbled.

**I tried to concentrate on the race.**

Everyone took a breath.

**We made our first turn, the wheels creaking under us, the chariot threatening to tip,**

Everyone stared at Harley wanting his to continue.

** but we were now only ten feet behind Annabeth.**

"Annabeth they're gaining on you." Travis said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

** If I could just get a little closer, Tyson could use his pole….**

"Or. . . ."

**Annabeth's fighter wasn't smiling now.**

Everyone snorted.

** He pulled a javelin from his collection and took aim at me. He was about to throw when we heard the scre****aming.**

Everyone winced.

That wasn't a good sign.

**The pigeons were swarming—thousands of them dive-bombing the spectators in the stands, attacking the other chariots.**

"Those things hurt too." Will said.

** Beckendorf was mobbed.**

Leo winced.

** His fighter tried to bat the birds away but he couldn't see anything.**

"Well there was a lot of birds." Katie said.

Everyone that was there nodded.

** The chariot veered off course and plowed through the strawberry fields, the mechanical horses steaming.**

Some of the Demeter cabin looked down saddened.

**In the Ares chariot, Clarisse barked an order to her fighter, who quickly threw a screen of camouflage netting over their basket. **

"Your still racing?" Piper asked.

Clarisse shrugged.

**The birds swarmed around it, pecking and clawing at the fighter's hands as he tried to hold up the net, but Clarisse just gritted her teeth and kept driving.**

"You really want to win. "Jason said to Clarisse.

Clarisse shrugged again.

** Her skeletal horses seemed immune to the distraction. The pigeons pecked uselessly at their empty eye sockets and flew through their rib cages, but the stallions kept right on running.**

Nico was sided on liking those horses.

"Well that's an advantage." Harley said stopping reading.

Everyone stared at him and he started reading quickly.

**The spectators weren't so lucky. The birds were slashing at any bit of exposed flesh, driving everyone into a panic.**

"They hurt so bad." Was heard around the crowd.

** Now that the birds were closer, it was clear they weren't normall pigeons.**

"Well I didn't know that." Thalia said sarcastically.

** Their eyes were beady and evil-looking. Their beaks were made of bronze, and judging from the yelps of the campers, they must've been razor sharp.**

"They were." Will said," I had to heal almost everyone."

Everyone nodded.

**"Stymphalian birds!" Annabeth yelled. She slowed down and pulled her chariot alongside mine. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"**

"Just like those . . .sheep." Grover shivered.

Annabeth patted his back.

**"Tyson," I said, "we're turning around!"**

**"Going the wrong way?" he asked.**

"Yep." Leo said popping the 'p'.

**"Always," I grumbled, but I steered the chariot toward the stands.**

"What does he mean by that?" A camper asked.

Nobody answered.

They didn't have the answer.

**Annabeth rode right next to me. She shouted, "Heroes, to arms!" But I wasn't sure anyone could hear her over the screeching of the birds and the general chaos.**

"Most didn't." A camper informed.

"Good to know." Annabeth mumbled.

**I held my reins in one hand and managed to draw Riptide as a wave of birds dived at my face, their metal beaks snapping. **

"Get them!" Connor yelled.

Everyone was thinking along the same lines.

**I slashed them out of the air and they exploded into dust and feathers, but there were still millions of them left. One nailed me in the back end and I almost jumped straight out of the chariot.**

Everyone laughed.

It was funny. . .

**Annabeth wasn't having much better luck. The closer we got to the stands, the thicker the cloud of birds became.**

"That . . . sucks." Leo said.

Annabeth nodded.

**Some of the spectators were trying to fight back. The Athena campers were calling for shields. The archers from Apollo's cabin brought out their bows and arrows, ready to slay the menace, but with so many campers mixed in with the birds, it wasn't safe to shoot.**

"The hunters could shoot them." Thalia said grinning.

The Apollo cabin scowled at her.

**"Too many!" I yelled to Annabeth. "How do you get rid of them?"**

"Noise." Annabeth said.

**She stabbed at a pigeon with her knife. "Hercules used noise! Brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could—" ****Her eyes got wide. "Percy ... Chiron's collection!"**

Chiron looked fended.

Annabeth smiled sheepishly.

**I understood instantly. "You think it'll work?"**

"Yes!" Most of the campers yelled.

Now Chiron was fended.

**She handed her fighter the reins and leaped from her chariot into mine like it was the easiest thing in the world. **

"It was Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said.

**"To the Big House! It's our only chance!"**

"GO!" Campers yelled.

**Clarisse has just pulled across the finish line, completely unopposed,**

"Well that's cheating." Travis stated.

Clarisse glared at him.

**and seemed to notice for the first time how serious the bird problem was.**

"Wow." Thalia said sarcastically.

"Shut up!"

**When she saw us driving away, she yelled, "You're running? The fight is here, cowards!"**

"Oh, we love you to Clarisse." Connor said.

Clarisse growled.

**She drew her sword and charged for the stands.**

"And there she goes!" Travis yelled.

"If you don't -" Clarisse was cut off by Harley reading faster.

**I urged our horses into a gallop. The chariot rumbled through the strawberry fields, across the volleyball pit, and lurched to a halt in front of the Big House .Annabeth and I ran inside, tearing down the hallway to Chiron's apartment.**

Everyone leaned forward.

**His boom box was still on his nightstand. So were his favorite CDs. I grabbed the most repulsive one I could find, Annabeth snatched the boom box, and together we ran back outside.**

Chiron humphed," There classics."

**Down at the track, the chariots were in flames. Wounded campers ran in every direction, with birds shred-ding their clothes and pulling out their hair, while Tantalus chased breakfast pastries around the stands, every once in a while yelling, "Everything's under control! Not to worry.'"**

"What an idiot." Leo said.

"He was one." Annabeth said.

Everyone agreed.

**We pulled up to the finish line. Annabeth got the boom box ready. I prayed the batteries weren't dead.**

"That would suck." Jason said.

"Yes it would." Connor said.

**I pressed PLAY and started up Chiron's favorite—the All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin.**

Chiron smiled.

**Suddenly the air was filled with violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian.**

Everyone groaned.

**The demon pigeons went nuts. They started flying in circles, running into each other like they wanted to bash their own brains out. **

"Probably did." Travis said with sympathy.

**Then they abandoned the track altogether and flew skyward in a huge dark wave.**

**"Now!" shouted Annabeth. "Archers!"**

Everyone cheered.

**With clear targets, Apollo's archers had flawless aim. Most of them could nock five or six arrows at once. **

The Apollo cabin grinned.

**Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked pigeons, and the survivors were a distant trail of smoke on the horizon.**

Everyone cheered and the arena vibrated.

**The camp was saved, but the wreckage wasn't pretty. Most of the chariots had been completely destroyed. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple bird pecks.**

Everyone winced.

**The kids from Aphrodite's cabin were screaming because their hairdos had been ruined and their clothes pooped on.**

Piper groaned.

The Aphrodite cabin shrieked in disgust.

**"Bravo!" Tantalus said, but he wasn't looking at me or Annabeth. "We have our first winner!"**

"What?" Some asked.

**He walked to "He finish line and awarded the golden laurels for the race to a stunned-looking Clarisse.**

**Then he turned and smiled at me. "And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race."**

"What the heck!" A lot of people screamed.

"That's just not right." Leo said shaking his head.

"Alright campers. Time for bed." Chiron said still upset about his collection.

The crowd groaned.

Later that night you could hear this yell from the Hermes cabin," CONNOR!"

* * *

**Hope you liked it**

**please review**

**see you**


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